Ketchum Family Joy
by Lygatto-Un-Sorceror
Summary: Lana Frances Adelle Joy has finished her training and has finally become an officially registered Roving Nurse Joy. With her dream achieved, she now heads to Hoenn to face her past and conquer the Battle Frontier. Sequel to Bored of Battle
1. Lana Sets Forth

Six years later, in the Contest Hall in Majolica Town in the Sinnoh Region, multiple nurse joy were standing on the dais, all of which were holding portfolios containing their graduation certificate, authorizing them all as official Nurse Joy. An aging Nurse Joy said, "And with that, I'll conclude the ceremony," and the new Nurse Joy moved away from the Dais and went to their respective mother.

When a black-haired Nurse Joy reached her mother, her mother said, "So, what now, Lana?"

"I think I'll take Ash up on that offer."

"Really? You know it's in the Hoenn Region, right?"

"Yeah. It'll also let me test out my ability to function as a Roving Nurse Joy."

"Alright," Marnie sighed. "I just wish that you'd do it closer to home is all."

"Come on, it's not like I'll be alone all the time. I could also use the time to learn healing techniques from the Hoenn Region too."

Marnie smiled and said, "Well, I can't argue with that. When are you going?"

"As soon as possible. But I'm certainly going to change out of these things before I do!" indicating the Nurse Joy Uniform that she had been forced to wear for the last five years.

Marnie smiled at Lana, having been on the receiving end of more than one of her daughter's rant about the uniform that they were required to wear. She said, "So, do you want to go home now, or…"

"Yeah. Sure. Just…the _is_ one thing that I want."

"Oh? What's that?"

Lana grinned and said, "Come with me," and took her hand before leading her to a stall. The stall owner was selling pokéballs. She said, "I'd like a Friend Ball, Love Ball, Fast Ball, Net Ball, Dive Ball, Luxury Ball, six Heal Ball's, a Quick Ball, three Dusk Balls oh! And that Lure Ball that you've got there," as the stall owner started to gather up the items that she'd listed. After she'd convinced her mother to pay for them for her, Lana put them in the satchel that she'd left with her mother during the ceremony. They then left the building, not stopping to bid anyone farewell as Lana finishing three years early hadn't earned her many friends.

When they were outside, Lana and Marnie said, "Come on out," and tossed a pokéball in the air. When they reached the peak of their throw, the pokéballs burst open. Marnie's revealing a Skarmory, Lana's, the Flygon that she'd used in the exhibition match that she'd competed in alongside her brother so many years ago. They got on the back of their pokémon and gave them directions to head on home.

When they were home, Lana went to her room and got out of her Nurse Joy gear and put on a pair of black cargo pants and a royal blue tank top. She put on a belt that she'd had custom made that had pouches all round it that held her medical salves and equipment. Then, she shrugged on a blue light trenchcoat that had a white cross on the sleeve. It also had pokéball slots built into it, six on the outside, and another six on the inner lining. She transferred the pokéballs that she'd taken with her, that had pokémon in them, to the slots on the outer lining of her coat and put the six heal balls that her mother bought for her in ones on the inner lining. She then put on some black boots. After she was done, she grabbed the hat that had one upturned side, held in place by a blue, cross-shaped, crystal, that also served to affix strange yellow and green feathers to the hat. As she left her room, she grabbed up her satchel and slung it onto her shoulder after putting the remaining pokéballs that her mother had bought for her in the outer pokéball slots on her satchel, though there were two empty ones, able to carry more than the standard six because she was now a Roving Nurse Joy. Lana figured that she'd be able to find or buy some while she was on the road to fill in the last two spots on her satchel.

When she was back downstairs, Lana's mother sighed and said, "You know, I really wish that you would stop wearing that," nodding at her daughter's hat.

Lana looked up at the brim of her hat and grinned. She said, "What can I say?" and shrugged. "I like it."

Marnie said, "Make sure you call me if you need any advice, alright!"

"Of course I will, Mum," Lana said, with an exasperated smile. "Though, after the last six years, I would hope that I won't need to."

"So would I. But the offer stands anyway."

"Yeah. Thanks," Lana said before turning and walking from their house, waving over her shoulder as she left. When she was outside, Lana released Flygon and said, "Well, girl, it's about time we take up that challenge." Flygon let out an eager cry, having wanted to test her mettle in a one on one, all out battle against that Noivern again for a very long time. Lana laughingly said, "Sorry girl…" knowing how much her Flygon wanted another shot as Ash's Noivern, "…but you're going to have to wait a bit longer to have your chance." Flygon let out a surprisingly whingy cry and Lana explained, "You see, this is going to have to be an official battle, so we're going to have to earn our chance. After _that_ , you'll have as many chances as we need to beat him." Flygon let out a regretful cry as she turned her back and placed her hands on the ground for Lana climb onto her back. When Lana was standing on flygon's back, legs spread apart like a surfer, she put on a pair of blue, wire frame, sunglasses and said, "Alright Flygon, to the Hoenn Region!" in a loud, eager tone. Flygon took off and, with one flap of her wings, was at her top speed.

As they flew, Lana revelled in the feeling of flying at top speed with her pokémon, her hair flying backwards, having had to slow down whenever they were flying alongside someone. But, despite that, she made sure to keep one hand on her hat to ensure that it didn't go flying, the crystal and the multicoloured feathers being by far the most valuable things that she had brought with her. About three hours in, Lana was getting a bit tired of fighting against the wind and said, "Flygon, I think we should probably set down when we come to the next bit of land, alright?" Flygon let out an accepting cry, getting somewhat tired itself, unused to carrying Lana for quite so long. A few minutes later, Flygon saw land and let out a cry, banked left and started to descend.

When they'd landed, Lana hopped off of Flygon and took out its pokéball and returned it to her belt as she took out another and said, "Come on out Liepard, and let it open in her hand, releasing Liepard from the ball. She returned Liepard's pokéball to her belt and said, "Come on, let's find some place to stay for the night." Liepard let out a satisfied meow, happy to be free of the pokéball, annoyed that it had had to stay inside the cramped space for so long. "But first…" Lana went up to a brown haired man that was sitting outside of a café and said, "Excuse me, sir…"

"Yes?" the man said after putting down his drink.

"I don't suppose that you could tell me where this is, could you?"

"This is Pallet Town. Why're ya asking? Didn't you see the sign in the outskirts?"

"No. I just flew in here on Flygon from Sinnoh."

"Seriously?!" the man exclaimed. "It must be pretty tough to make it this far in one leg."

"Yeah. It's 'pretty tough' alright," Lana said, laughing with Liepard.

"Are you going to want somewhere to sleep then?"

"Yeah. I think I'd better. I doubt that I'll get to Hoenn today, even on Flygon. Do you know anywhere good?"

"Yeah. The Pallet House is good."

"How's the food there? Is it any good?"

"Yeah. It's got the some of the best food in the region."

"Really?" Lana asked. "It's probably going to be expensive then."

"No. it's surprisingly cheap, though no-one's been able to figure out why."

"Hm. Well, thanks," Lana said with a smile as she left to search for this 'Pallet House'.

As she left, the man that she was talking to thought, ' _That girl…with those lines under her eyes she almost looked like…! Nah. There's no way. She looks to be about seventeen. Ash and I aren't even thirty-five yet._ '

Soon enough, Lana found what she perceived to be a rundown building that had a sign saying 'The Pallet House' hanging on a swinging sign outside. She shrugged and said, "Well if the food's as good as that guy said, I suppose that it shouldn't matter what it looks like." She took a few steps past the gate and said, "I just hope that there's no cobwebs anywhere," and shivered.

When she opened the door and went through, a bell sounded and she looked up at the door and saw a brass bell swinging next to the door. A woman with dark brown hair, that looked to be in her late forties, came to the room and said, "Hello! Are you Ms. Sylb-!" the woman's eyes widened at the sighed of Lana. She said, "You're _not_ Ms. Sylbern, are you?"

"No, sorry. I just got into town and got recommended to come here for the best food in the region."

"Are you…no," the woman shook her head.

"Is there something wrong, lady? If there is, I'm a trained nurse. Well…a trained Nurse Joy that is, but my skills should be transferable in an emergency."

"No no, it's nothing. You just reminded me a little of my son, that's all."

"Your son?"

"He's a Frontier Brain now, so I rarely get to see him unfortunately."

"Is that so?" Lana asked.

"Who is it?" Lana paused for a second after hearing the woman gasp. She said, "If you don't mind telling me, that is."

"No no. It's fine. There's not many people that want to talk about him. that's all. After all, along with Gary Oak, he's one of the most well-known trainers from Pallet Town. He's even listed in the top twenty trainers."

"Really?!" Lana asked, blinking in surprise, never having considered that one of the strongest trainers in the world could come from a small town like Pallet.

"Yeah. Why are you so surprised?"

"Well…no offence, but this town…it's not very…you know…big. I mean, it doesn't even have it's own pokécentre."

The woman sighed and said, "I know. You've got a point there, but we make do with Professor Oak's medical facilities."

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

"So…" Lana said, unsure what to say.

"So…" the woman said, equally uncertain.

"Ah! Right!" Lana exclaimed, remembering why she'd come to The Pallet House to begin with. "Do you have any rooms left?"

"Any rooms?"

"Yeah. It's absolutely alright if you don't, because I hadn't been planning on making any stops, but it was getting late and I was beginning to struggle to stay standing on Flygon's back."

"You were…!" the woman exclaimed, beyond shocked that someone would actually try to attempt to stand on a pokémon's back while it was flying, let alone a pokémon like Flygon, which had a tendency to undulate in flight.

"Is there something strange about that?" Lana asked.

The woman laughed and said, "No. It just sounds like something that my son would do."

"Do you mind telling me his name? Maybe I've heard of him before."

"I doubt you have. It's been a while since he was in Sinnoh."

"How did you know that I'm from Sinnoh?"

"Your accent. It's just like an old friend of Ash's."

" _Ash_!?" Lana exclaimed. "Ash, as in Ash _Ketchum_?!"

"Yes. You _have_ heard of him then?"

"Oh, I've heard of him alright. He demolished me in a battle in the Unova Region a while back."

"In the…" the woman gasped, remembering a conversation that she'd had with Ash while he was on his honeymoon with May.

"I'm sorry. We're fully booked, but…"

"But?" Lana eagerly asked, _wanting_ to try some of the 'best food in the region'.

"I _do_ have a spare room in my house if you'd like to stay there for the night."

"I wouldn't want to intrude."

"Oh, you wouldn't be intruding, believe me," the woman said.

"Well, if you insist, then…"

"I do! I do," the woman said. "Unfortunately though, I'm going to be a bit busy this afternoon, checking in the new guests."

"That's fine. I'm curious about Professor Oak's medical facilities and techniques."

"His…why?"

"Oh!" Lana said. "I'm terribly sorry. My name is Lana Frances Adelle Joy. I recently graduated as a Roving Nurse Joy, so, right now, I'm going on a journey to both advance my knowledge and get my revenge on your son."

"Get…What do you mean _revenge_?" the woman said, frowning.

"OH! No no. Sorry. I didn't mean it like _that_. I'm just going to go over to the Hoenn Region and trounce _him_ as badly as he did me and my brother in Unova."

"Ah," the woman sighed. "Well, if that's all, then you can call me Delia."

"Alright. Thank you, Delia," Lana said. "Now…about this room?"

"Of course," Delia said, "it's this way," and exited the room through a side door and led Lana to the house behind the inn. She opened the door and let her in. when they were both inside, Delia said, "Here's a key," flinging her a key that was on the hook that was on a Pikachu keyring. "Your room is the first on the right and you can have the run of the house until I get back."

"Uhh…Why are you giving me a key to your house? Aren't you afraid I'll do something like make a copy and come back after I leave?"

"No. why would I worry about something like that? You're a Nurse Joy, and Liepard seems to like you a lot. Also, if you're curious, the room upstairs on the first left was Ash's."

"It was…then, are you saying that…"

"It's changed a bit, but it's got every badge he ever earned and trophy that he won, along with some other odds and ends."

"Alright. Thank you. I think I'll take a look."

"Great!" Delia said with a smile before leaving to look after the hotel.

When Delia was gone, Lana said, "Well, best get things settled first, then I'll see what I can find out about _his_ past," and went upstairs to put her satchel on the queen-sized bed that was in her room. When she had, she went into the room across from her and blinked, amazed that, clearly, nothing had changed since Ash was a kid. And, Delia had kept it clean too, not seeing even a speck of dust anywhere in the room. She went to the first thing that was on the wall and saw that it was a set of eight Kanto badges. She thought, ' _Only the eight common ones? I would have thought that someone of Ash's character would have gone to at least one of the less common gyms in his home region. Well, never mind…'_ and saw a certificate saying 'top sixteen' under it. she then moved on to the next display case…which was full of shells that had some strange gem-looking things attached to them. she said, "Okay…that's weird. Where are _these_ from. She saw a large trophy displayed on a shelf below it that read 'Orange League Champion'. She said, "Well, I guess that that answers that."

Lana then saw the Johto Region set next to it, and the certificate under it. ' _Top Eight? In Hoenn too?_ ' she thought as she moved on to the next one. "This is…a surprise. I'll have to ask Delia about this later," thinking, once again, on how easily he had defeated her and Jayce as she moved through the room. When she got to the Alola Region, she blinked. Seeing a set of imitation Z-Crystals similar to the one that her brother received for competing the island challenge, she began to search for the badges of the Alolan Pokémon League, but didn't find any. She said, "Well, I guess that that's another thing that I'll have to ask her about." She said, "Well, in any case, I think that I should probably do as I said and head on over to Professor Oak's Lab and see what I can find out. Who knows, he might even be able to tell me something that would help me in my battle against him." she then went into her room and put on a black, ankle-length cargo skirt and transferred her medical gear over to it and took off her trench coat before leaving the house.


	2. Pallet Town

When Lana got to the Oak Lab, she knocked on the door and waited until it was answered by a man with brown hair. She said, "Uhh… _You_ are Professor Oak?"

"That's right," Professor Gary Oak said with a grin. "Bet you weren't expecting that, huh?"

"Yeah. Thanks for telling me about Pallet House."

"So, was there room?"

"No. But Delia decided to let me stay in a spare room at her house for the night."

"I see. So, did you go and look at the museum?"

"The Museum?"

"Sorry. It's an inside joke that Ash and I have."

"What do you mean?"

"Delia has kept that room the same ever since Ash first left pallet town…Arceus! It'd be over twenty years ago now."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah…and that room still has every achievement that Ashy-boy ever got."

"Ashy…boy?"

"Heh, never mind about that," Gary said. "What brings you here? If you don't mind my asking, that is."

"Oh! Well…a few things actually."

"Oh? I don't usually get many guests from Sinnoh. Especially ones that I've never met before."

"Never…Oh! Apologies," Lana said. "My name is Lana Joy."

" _Joy_?"

"Yes. I recently graduated from the Sinnoh Academy as a Roving Nurse Joy, so I was wondering if there were any medical techniques that you were aware of that I are unavailable in the Sinnoh Region."

"I see. And the others?"

"I don't suppose you've got any experience beating Ash Ketchum, do you?"

"Hah!" Gary laughed. "Not for a long time I'm afraid."

"Oh," Lana said. "Well then, never mind. There's still the first reason."

"Hmm…" Gary said. "I don't know that I do, but you're welcome to come in and read whatever you want."

"Really?!" Lana eagerly said.

"Of course. So long as I can examine this Flygon that managed to make it directly here from Sinnoh."

"Alright, if that's all," Lana said.

"It is. Come through, here," Gary said, leading the way through the Oak Lab that was his, ever since his grandfather died. When they came out the other side of the building, he said, "Here you go. If you want to stay a few days, you're more than welcome to let your pokémon roam free here."

"Hmm…" Lana said. She shrugged and said, "I don't see why not. You _are_ renowned for your love of pokémon. "Just so long as you restrict your 'examinations' to Flygon."

Gary shrugged and said, "I see no problems with that."

"Cool!" Lana said and released her pokémon for Gary to see.

Gary's eyes widened at the number of pokémon that Lana was carrying with her and said, "You can't carry more than six pokémon! Otherwise your trainer license will…"

" _Roving_ Nurse Joy, remember? That limiter is removed for us since we spend a lot of our time off in the wilderness, so we need to be able to protect ourselves against a greater variety of threats than those that work in the relative safety of a pokécentre."

"I guess that makes sense," Gary said, this being the first time that he'd actually heard of a Roving Nurse Joy. "In any case, you've done a really good job raising these pokémon, Lana."

"Thanks," Lana said, "I…!" Lana's eyes widened as a herd of Tauros stampeded towards them. she said, "We…should get back inside, right?" in a high-pitched tone.

Gary thought, ' _Well, that confirms it then,'_ and rushed inside the house, locking Lana outside. As Lana started to bang her fist against the door, Gary said, "Sorry Lana, but I can't control Ash's Tauros when they're like this."

Lana exclaimed, "Some professor you are then!" and turned to face the herd. She reached up and touched the crystal pin attached to her hat and extended her other hand forward, closing her eyes. When she opened them, her eyes were glowing blue and she said, "Calm down," in a calm, but firm, tone, bringing the rampaging herd to a stop, the pin and feathers emitting a faint glow. They all came to a stop at once, and, startling Lana, started to happily rub their faces against hers. Gary came back outside and said, "Well I'll be."

"What is it, traitor?" Lana asked accusingly.

Gary grinned and said, "I suppose I probably deserve that. I've just never seen them treat anyone like that, but Ash."

"What about May?"

"Not even her," Gary said, shaking his head.

"Hn, well, who knows. It could just be that we can both use aura."

"You can, can you?"

"Yeah. Isn't that right, Lucario?" Lana asked as Lucario started to make its way over to get the annoying Wild Bull pokémon away from his master. Lucario let out an affirmative grunt, looking at Gary before generating a bone made of purple energy, that had fire at the tips, between its hands.

Gary thought, ' _Her Lucario knows Shadow Bone? Well…_ ' and turned to look at Lana. ' _…Ash, your daughter is just as surprising as you are._ ' He said, "You can go wherever you like within this ranch while you're here, if you want to check out the other pokémon."

"Really?!" Lana asked.

"Of course. It's not often that we get a Nurse Joy come here."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah. It's too bad really."

"Why's that?"

"Well…it's a bit selfish of me, really. But it cuts into the time that I would otherwise be spending doing my research."

"Oh," Lana said, a disapproving look on her face.

"Hey! Don't misunderstand," Gary said, holding his hands in front of him. "I put whatever I'm doing down until the pokémon has been healed, but, it does take time away from my research."

Lana sighed and said, "I suppose I really can't blame you," thinking of all the times that she'd been annoyed when she was distracted by someone when she was studying. "But, I left most of my healing things back at The Pallet House, so I think I'll stick around for a few days before heading off. In the meantime, would it be at all possible for you to show me the healing machines that you use."

"Well…" Gary hesitantly said. "I wo-ould…but most of them are pretty rundown, so, when something serious comes along, we sent it over to the Nurse Joy in Viridian City."

"I see. Could you show me anyway?"

"I don't see why not. Like I said, I'm not sure what good it would do."

"They ran a few classes on repairs at the academy, so…"

"Alright, sure. If you can get them up and running again, just come and ask me about anything you want."

"Alright. How about a battle then?"

"A…uhh…okay. Anything except _that_."

"Why? You said that you beat Ash Ketchum. That means that you used to compete in the Regional Leagues, right?"

"Well…yeah. But that was _years_ ago now. I'll tell you what. My son just came back from competing in the Kalos League recently. How about you battle _him_ instead?"

"Sure, how'd he do?"

"Top Four apparently."

"Top Four, huh? Sure. I think that that would be good practice for me."

"'Practice'?"

"Yeah. I've battled Ash Ketchum before and he gave me access to the Battle Frontier. I've decided that it's about time I take up that challenge, but…I've been studying for a while, so I haven't had the chance to enter any official competitions recently."

"Oh. I see…hmm…if you're concerned about your skills, I _could_ arrange a tournament in a week's time."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I could probably even arrange Ash to come here for it too, if you want."

"Uhh…no thanks. I don't want him preparing anything special for me, if that's possible."

"Alright. That's fair. In that case, I'll see what I can do about organising a tournament anyway."

"Thanks," Lana grinned.

Gary said, "Now come on, the machines are this way," leading the way into the healing rooms.

When they were there, Lana looked horrified. She said, "These machines…when did you get them?"

"I'm not sure. I think that it would have been just after gramps handed this place over to me, so…about fifteen years ago. Why? What's wrong with it?"

"Well, that explains it then."

"What do you mean? What explains what?"

"These machines have a lifetime of about ten years before they start to break down. Quite frankly, I'm surprised that it's still working!"

"Is that so?"

"Well…yeah. That's why I said it."

"Sorry. I didn't know."

"Surely they told you when you bought it?"

"No. actually, I got this one second hand, so it could be that it was quite a bit older."

Lana sighed and said, "Well, I suppose that this is proof enough that you don't get Nurse Joy down here very often." Gary shrugged, unable to muster a defence. Lana sighed and said, "Can I have access to your vidphone?"

"Certainly," Gary said, leading the way to the loungeroom, where his vidphone system was hanging on the wall. He said, "There you go," nodding at it. "I suppose I can trust you to not break anything?"

Lana levelled a venomous glare at Gary, who left with a grin. When Gary was gone, Lana punched in the number for the Viridian City Pokécentre. When it was answered, the Viridian City Nurse Joy said, "Hello, this is the Nurse Joy from Viridian City. How can I help you?"

"Come on Aunt Serene, you _know_ it's me."

Serene Joy grinned. "How are you Lana…wait…" she said, looking at the number. She asked, "Why are you in Professor Oak's Lab? I thought that you were still studying back home?"

"I just graduated and was on my way to the Hoenn Region when Flygon started to get to tired. That's when I decided that it would be an idea to set down at the next bit of land, which happened to be here."

"I see. In that case, what can I do for you? I don't have any of your pokémon here."

"I know. Professor Oak told me that he was having some problem with his healing machines, so I offered to take a look at them for him."

"And?"

"He had a Mk XIV PHM made by Silph that he got second hand fifteen years ago."

"Seriously?!" Nurse Joy exclaimed.

"Yeah. I was hoping that you had some newer ones that you could ship over on quick notice."

"Hmm…unfortunately, we just had our machines replaced a few months ago, so our machines are all gone now."

Lana sighed in regret. "Then I don't suppose you have some trainees working in your pokécentre, do you?"

"Well…yes, but…"

"How long will it take for a new machine to get here?"

"It should be about two weeks. Why?"

"Like I said, I'm registered now, so I could take over for you as Supervising Joy for that time, if you let them come here."

"I don't know. You only _just_ finished training, so…"

"As a _Roving_ Nurse Joy."

"Oh! Well, in that case, certainly. It would probably be a _very_ great help for them to have some training under a Roving Joy."

"Oh! And you'll probably need to come here next week too."

"Why's that?"

"Professor Oak is planning a Battle Tournament next week that I'm going to take part in."

"I see…hmm… _I_ can't. Tell him that I'll see what I can arrange for it."

"Thanks!" Lana said, a happy smile on her face. "Well, I'll be seeing you then."

"Yeah. Whenever you need me."

"Hopefully that's not too often."

Selene smiled and said, "Yeah. My sister _can_ be rather trying."

" _That_ is an understatement."

"I suppose."

"Well then…bye," Lana said.

"I'll see you when I see you, Lana," Selene said, hanging up as a trainer came in, holding a Caterpie that was suffering a severe burn.

Lana hung up herself and looked over at the large book case and went over to it, her hand ghosting over the titles as she searched for anything remotely related to either Ash Ketchum, or Healing techniques. When she found one called, 'Healing Techniques of the Ancient Pokemopolitans', she took it out, sat down in the couch opposite the shelf, opened it and started to read.

XXXXX

After she'd hung up, Selene went and found her apprentices and called them in for a meeting. When they were the pokécentre's meeting room, she said, "I need two of you to go to Pallet Town for a few weeks."

The apprentices looked amongst themselves before one stepped forward and asked, "Why? What have we done wrong?"

"Nothing. It's just that the daughter of an old friend just called, and she needs some help healing pokémon in Pallet Town until they can get some new machines installed in Professor Oak's Lab."

Another apprentice said, "I didn't think that they had a Nurse Joy in Pallet Town."

"They don't. She's a Roving Nurse Joy, and is only going to be there temporarily. _Now_ , do I have any volunteers, or do I need to choose two of you myself?" The Apprentice Joys all started talking amongst themselves, trying to convince one another why it shouldn't be _them_ that went, causing Selene to sigh. She said, " _Fine!_ Lydia, Fiona, you two will go," naming the two that had been speaking.

"Eeehhh!?" The two Apprentice Joys exclaimed. "Why?"

Selene said, "Because, the pair of you seemed like good choices," before leaving the meeting room to inform the Centre's other Joy what was happening.

As Selene walked off. The other Apprentice Joy's gathered around the two that had been selected and gave them their commiserations, none of them wanting anything to do with the backwoods town that had somehow managed to convince _the_ Professor Oak to move to it. Lydia sighed and said, "Well, the decision's been made anyway, so there's nothing that we can do about it now."

Fiona sighed and said, "That's true, Lydia, but if we appeal to Raylene, maybe we could convince her that it would be better for an Apprentice Joy from another town to go and help out this Ruffian Joy."

"I know, right? What use is it really to try to learn something from one of _them_? It's far better to learn how to use the proper healing machine's in a modern pokécentre, like this one or the one in Celadon City." As Lydia mentioned Celadon City, her, and all of the other Apprentice Joy's' mouths started to water, thinking on the fact that, as it was the host to Silph Co.'s Headquarters, the pokécentre there got all the latest in healing technology first.

Fiona and Lydia then left the meeting room and made their way to Nurse Raylene Joy's office and knocked on the door. When they were let in, Fiona said, "Nurse Raylene…"

"Yes girls?" Raylene said.

"Nurse Selene just assigned us to go to Pallet Town."

"That's right. She just left. What about it?"

"We…don't think that that is a good idea."

"Oh? And why would _that_ be?" Raylene tersely asked.

"We think that, since we have no intention of becoming a Ruffia…cough cough… _Roving_ Joy, our time would be better spent working here, under the guidance of you and Nurse Selene."

Raylene sighed and said, "I thought it might be something like that. The answer is no. I _won't_ be countermanding my sister's decision."

"But _why_?"

"Not only does a hierarchy exist within this pokécentre, there is a reason behind every one of my sister's decisions." She sighed again before saying, "Look. I understand where you're coming from. Believe me. But, Roving Joy's have access to knowledge and skills that we Nurse Joy's that work in pokécentres do not have. Just as we have skills that they tend to lack. Who knows, maybe you could even teach this Roving Joy something while you're there."

"I see," Lydia said. "So then, you're saying that we'll need to teach her what to do?"

"I'm just saying that it's possible. But, keep in mind, she _is_ still a Registered Joy, thus your technical superior."

"Alright," Fiona said. "Thank you for explaining this to us nurse Raylene."

Lydia said, "Do we…uhh…have to leave _now_?"

"No. tomorrow is best. There's only a few hours of daylight left and I wouldn't want you getting hurt walking there in the dark. Lydia and Fiona sighed in relief that they could stay in a proper city for even one night longer.

XXXXX

A few hours later, Gary came out to see that Lana was still where he'd left her, reading a book about ancient healing techniques that had been written by the girl genius, Professor Eve. He thought, ' _Well, she's certainly nothing like Ash used to be. Must get it from her mother…whoever that was.'_ He said, "You're still here?"

"What do you mean? It's only…!" Lana's eyes widened, shocked at the time, having been completely absorbed in the book. "Yikes! I'm so sorry!" Lana said. "I'll go now!" and forced the book onto the coffee table, leaving it there as she turned to leave.

Gary said, "You can take that with you if you want?"

"I…can? Really?" Lana eagerly asked.

"Of course. I don't really use it that often, and, if you bring it back when you're done, I don't see the problem."

"Thank you!" Lana said with a smile as she gathered it up before leaving. As she reached the arch that led to the foyer-area, she turned back and said, "Oh! I organised for some Apprentice Joy's to come here for a few weeks and a family friend said that she could see about getting some temporary replacements for the machines until the new ones come in too."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Who is it?"

"The Nurse Joy in Viridian City went to the academy with my mother and they've stayed in touch."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah."

"Thanks for that," Gary said, thinking, ' _that's going to save me a lot of work, and keep those favours that I was going to cheque in for later._ '

Lana said, "Well, I'll see you tomorrow," and left to rush back to Delia's house. When she was outside, she held her hip, panting. She gasped out, "I…didn't…think that…that would…take me…so long…I must be…really out of…of shape…!" she forced her breathing to even out until she was better before opening the door. When she did, she was met with the most pleasant aroma that she'd smelt…just about ever. She took a deep breath in before letting out a satisfied, "Aaahhh. That smells _good!_ "

Delia smiled and said, "Well, I should hope so."

"What is it?"

"Lots of things. There's spaghetti bolognese, chicken Florentine, duck l'orange, and, for dessert, apfel strudel."

"So much?" Lana asked, her mouth watering.

"Yes."

"How?"

"It's been a while since I've had someone staying with me, so I guess that I may have gone slightly overboard."

"No no. I mean, all the ingredients…and the time too, come to think of it."

"I buy in bulk for the Inn, and, whatever is left, I use for myself. As for the time, these aren't too difficult to make if you know how. Why are you so surprised?"

"Well…my mother always tried hard, but her abilities in the kitchen were always…rather lacklustre, I'm afraid."

"I see. That's too bad." Delia said, "Well, that aside, time to eat." And put the four foods on the table before going back to the cupboard and picking out two plates before picking out some cutlery and taking them over the table and setting two places, directly opposite each other. She said, "So, how was Professor Oak's?"

"It was…interesting…to say the least."

"How so?"

"Well…I would have thought that Professor Oak was…you know…older."

"Well, Samuel Oak was quite a lot older than Gary, who took over as Owner and Lead Researcher of The Oak Laboratory after Sam died."

"I see. Well, that aside, there was this really strange herd of Tauros that charged at me for some reason, then calmed down almost immediately."

"Well, that sounds like Ash's Tauros."

"Yeah. That's what Professor Oak said. I said that it could be that we both use aura and Tauros recognised that, and that's what caused it. But that still wouldn't explain everything, like why they seemed to be happy as they stampeded towards me in the first place."

"Well, I suppose that it doesn't matter that much, does it?" Delia asked, wanting to avoid the subject as much as possible if what Ash had told her was right and that Lana was unaware of the fact that he was her father.

"Yeah. I guess," Lana shrugged.

"So, what are you going to do tomorrow?"

"I've organised some other Joys to come here for a few weeks, so I'll be training them while looking after the pokémon in this Town until the Professor gets some new healing machines that will actually work."

"Wait. _You_ will be training them?"

"Yeah. Why? You got some kind of problem with that?" Lana asked, for some reason getting really irritated at the woman doubting her word.

"No no, nothing like that," Delia said. "I'm just surprised. You seem to be a bit too young to be training anyone. That's all."

"Oh. Well, I assure you I _am_ a Registered Joy."

"I don't doubt it," Delia said. She sighed and said, "I'm sorry for the misunderstanding."

"That's fine," Lana said. "By the way…"

"Yes?"

"Is there any place that I could set up a temporary ward in Pallet Town?"

"What would you need?"

"Some tents, tables, chairs, healing elixirs, potions, status healing medication."

"Don't you have a tent with you?"

"I do, but it's only a two person tent. I'm going to need something a lot bigger for treating pokémon of any size."

"Hmm…there is a meadow down the road that you can pitch tents in. You can probably see if Maggie has any in her market. She usually has all sorts of odds and ends available that the other stores in town don't normally carry. As for the rest…you'd have to see Gary, because there aren't any Pokémarts here."

"That's fine. I can mix them up myself if I can find the right ingredients in the forest, so there shouldn't be any problems there."

"Oh! Is that really all it takes?"

"More or less."

"So, you said that you were going to challenge Ash, didn't you?"

"Yes. Oh! Right! I was wondering something."

"What is it?"

"Why, after reaching the Top Four in the Sinnoh League, did he lose in the Quarter Finals in Unova?"

Delia sighed and said, "Ash…used to change out his pokémon team with every new region he went to. Unfortunately, that resulted in him having access to less fully evolved pokémon that he could call upon. And, in a finals battle…"

"I see," Lana sighed. "That is…problematic in its own way."

"How so?"

"If you're telling the truth…which I don't doubt…" Lana said, seeing the look that Delia was levelling at her. "…That means that Ash was reaching the final rounds with technically weaker pokémon than not only those that he had access to, but those that he was battling against too and now that all of his pokémon _have_ evolved…" Lana bit her lip. She sighed and said, "Ah well, I guess that I'll just need to try even harder now."

"If you don't mind my asking…"

"What is it?"

"Do you have a plan for when you face him?"

"Not strictly. But I'm certainly going to have the second round be 'Land'."

"Why's that?"

"You don't _really_ think that I'm just going to reveal my whole strategy to the _mother_ of my greatest challenge, do you?"

"Well…when you put it that way…" Delia said, laughing contagiously.


	3. Joy All Around

10 o'clock the next day…

Lana heard a loud cry in the sky over Pallet Town and rushed out of the tent that she had just finished setting up and looked into the sky. Seeing a Togekiss and an Altaria she thought, ' _So, they're here. It's about bloody time!_ ' Seeing the direction that the two flying types were headed, she thought, ' _So, they're headed towards Professor Oak's Lab, huh? I suppose I should probably go and get them myself, but…_ ' she bit her lip and looked back at the inside of the tents that she'd set up. She sighed and said, "Ah, it'll be fine. They'll figure it out," and went back inside to continue her work.

When they went to land outside his Lab, Gary rushed outside and frowned as they touched down after sending all of the feeding grass types running. He demanded, "Exactly _what_ do you think you're doing? Huh?"

"Excuse me?" the taller Joy said.

"You just scared all of the grass pokémon away with what you just did."

The Joy gasped and said, "I…didn't mean to!" an apologetic look on her face.

Gary sighed and said, "So, I take it that the pair of you are the Apprentice Joy's that Lana organized to help her, are you?"

"That's right. I'm Lydia Jane Lyanna Joy," the taller Joy said.

"And I am Fiona Jane Felicity Joy.

"That's great 'n' all," Gary said, annoyed at the two Joy's. "Lana is setting up a ward near the market." Gary then went back inside, no less annoyed than when he had come out to meet the two.

Lydia said, "Well, Fi, I guess we should just go and find wherever this market is that he was talking about."

Fiona said, "Sure thing, sis'. Sounds like a plan." As they walked, she said, "You know, Professor Oak just said that this Ruffian Joy was setting up a ward."

"Come to think of it, you're right. I wonder what it's going to be like."

"I'm sure that she's hired some office space and is converting it with some dividers."

"What about healing machines?"

"Potions will suffice in an emergency, and, since we're in Pallet Town now, all of the pokémon in the outlying areas are really weak."

"That's true. Come to think of it, that could be why Professor Oak's machine worked for as long as it did," Lydia theorized.

"Maybe." Then, seeing a number of buildings with signs outside of them, Fiona said, "Oh! That must be the market that Professor Oak was telling us about."

The sisters then rushed past the large sequence of tents that had been set up for some ungodly reason and went to the store next to it to see if the Ruffian Joy was there. It was newsagent. Next to that was a fruit & veg store. There were a few other stores as well, none of which had anything remotely to do with pokémon, their care, or even medicine in general. The went through them another three times before Lydia sighed and said, "Who knows. Maybe there's another market in this town," and led the way away from the series of shops.

They spent the next two hours wandering around Pallet Town trying to find a store of some sort that could pass for a market. But, they met with no success. Eventually, their stomachs got the better of them, and they went to a café that they'd seen along the way. They both bought sandwiches and a bottle of water before sitting down to eat. Fiona sighed as she bit into hers and, when she had swallowed it down, she sat back and said, "So, what should we do?"

Lydia blew a stray lock of hair out of her eyes and sighed before she said, "Who knows. We might as well just ring Nurse Selene and tell her that we couldn't find this Ruffian Joy."

"Before we do that, how about we go back to that market that we saw this morning and ask them about it?"

"Yeah. I suppose that that _would_ save us an earful of Nurse Selene's talks."

"That's very true," Fiona said, having been on the receiving end of one of Selene's 'talks', and not wanting to be there again.

The sisters made their way through their meal at a quick, yet respectable, pace. When they were done, they got up and left, taking what was left of their water with them, having some way to go till they got back to the market. When they were there, they went into the market and looked around to see all sorts of odds and ends, ranging one person tents, to pokéballs, to compound longbows they went up to the desk and he said, "Hello ladies. It's not too often I get Nurse Joy gracing my store. This must be my lucky day to have three of them in my store today. I know! I'll put a sign outside saying 'Official Supplier of Pallet Town Nurse Joy!"

Lydia said, "Really; please, don't."

Fiona said, "So, you're saying that that ruffian joy came in here today?"

"Why yes. She wanted to buy some tents and make sure that it was alright to set them up outside."

The two Joys blinked and said, "Did you just say… _tents!?_ " their eyes boggling at the sheer lunacy of it.

The man smiled and thought, ' _So, some city-dwellers, huh?_ ' he said, "So, where are you ladies from?"

"Viridian."

"Ah. I see. Well, this must be a change of pace coming here then."

"Yes," Lydia said, "very much so."

"How long are you planning on being here?"

"Not long, we hope."

Fiona said, "Just a few weeks."

"Oh? Why so short? Given the sudden influx of Nurse Joy, I'd thought that there was finally going to be a pokécentre being built here."

"I thought that Professor Oak took care of all of that."

"He does, but, there's really only so much that he can do. Unlike his grandfather, his research tends to be more based on the various legends rather than pokémon in general, so his healing skills are not as good as his grandfather's. Still better than just about everyone around here, but even so, they're nothing compared to what a Joy like yourselves can do."

"I see," Fiona said, more worried about antagonizing the locals, no matter how backward they may be, than her sister. "Well, we'll see what we can do about it when we get back, but, this time, we are only here to aid that…other…Nurse Joy until new Healing Machines are delivered to Professor Oak's facility."

"I see. Well, that's good enough then I suppose."

"Even if it's not, that's the way it's got to be. After all, despite our uniforms, Lydia and I are still only Apprentice Joy's, thus unable to operate on a pokémon by ourselves, let alone run an entire pokécentre like what would probably be needed here."

"I see. Well, in any case, I suppose I'll be seeing you around here for the time being."

"Indeed you shall," Fiona said, bidding the man farewell, and with that, they left. They immediately went to the…tent…that had been set up and went inside the small tent that the three larger ones were attached to. They found that it was completely empty. They started tapping their fingers against the table that had been set up in front of the three entry ways. Eventually they called out, "Hoy! Anyone here?"

Lana came out of the central entryway. Seeing the uniforms, she said, "So, you're the ones that Aunt Selene sent, yeah?"

Fiona whispered to her sister, 'She looks younger than _us_.'

Lydia whispered back, 'Yeah. What was Nurse Selene _thinking_?' she said, "Sorry. There seems to be some mistake. Where is the Nurse Joy of this…ugh…Pokécentre."

Lana said, "You're looking at her."

Lydia said, "Yeah, now pull the other one," taking in the black skirt and blue tank top that the imposter was wearing."

Lana's eye started to twitch and she said, "Come with me," and let the two Apprentice Joys past the table. she pointed at Lydia and said, "You, go in that one…" pointing at the left entryway before she turned to face Fiona. "…and you, the other,' pointing at the right entryway.

"Alright," Lydia said, not wanting to do it, but just to prove the young upstart wrong, went through. To her shock, there was set up a makeshift bed using a table and a thin mattress with a side table and that had bandages and potions on it. Fiona's side had a similar setup, but the pieces of metal that were being used to hold up the tables had been doubled up, reinforcing the tables so that they could handle heavier pokémon. The sisters looked back through the entryways and saw Lana, who hadn't moved once. Fiona reluctantly thought, ' _Okay, so maybe she_ does _know a thing or two, but just because she can set up an emergency ward doesn't mean a thing in our line of work.'_

They went back to the central tent and Lana asked, "Satisfied now?"

Lydia said, "Hn, just because you can set up a ward, doesn't mean a thing."

"Oh? Then look in there," Lana said, nodding at the central tent that she had been working in when the two Apprentice Joys had arrived. Lydia and Fiona went in, followed by Lana, not only because she hadn't finished what she was doing, but also because she wanted to make sure that the two uppity apprentices didn't do something to make her have to start from scratch. They were stunned motionless by what they saw. Lana had laid out some berries, a mortar & pestle and a bunch of containers on one table. on another, she had a tripod set up over a camp stove with a variety of measuring jugs. On another, were garden-variety spray cans, along with a few regular, empty, medicinal dispensers. After about a minute of silence with the two Apprentice Joys trying to imitate a Magikarp, Lana said, "See, not just some 'Ruffian' Joy."

"You…uhh… _heard_ …that?" Fiona asked.

"No. but I know what they call us. Believe me, I got _more_ than enough of it at the Sinnoh Academy."

"You're from Sinnoh?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Do they use Silph medicinal gear there too? Or is there another supplier that you use?"

"There are a few companies that compete over there. I'm pretty sure that Silph is one of them. There's also Devon Corporation and Pokétch Inc."

"Really? Wait…doesn't Pokétch make those cool watches?"

"That's right. Why?"

"Just curious."

"O…kay…" Lana said. "In any case, since you're here, I'd like you to go into the forest and find me some MiracleBerries, MysteryBerries, Bitter Berries and Figy Berries. They should all grow around Pallet."

"Huh?" Lydia said. "Now hold on a minute! We're Joys! Not some workhand that you can order around as you like!"

"Actually…that's a rather good interpretation of _exactly_ what you are. Now, go!" Lana said, pointing out of the tents. "I've got work to do, finishing up this place."

"You're… _not_ …finished?" Lydia asked.

"No. I've still got to…"

"Actually," Fiona said, "we will do that…right now!" clutching her sister's arm and dragging her out of the tent.

When they were outside, Lydia demanded, "What did you do _that_ for?"

" _Look_ , Lydia. It's clear that she knows at the very least, different things than we do. If we do what she says, that expands our repertoire of healing techniques. _Maybe_ to the point that we could aim higher than being just a Nurse Joy in some town!"

"You…aren't _seriously_ considering becoming a Ruffian Joy, are you?" Lydia asked, a concerned look on her face for her sister.

"Don't be absurd. I was thinking more along the lines of being one of the Indigo Joys."

"A…! Hmm…alright Fi. I'll go along with it. For now at least."

Fiona smiled wanly and said, "I suppose that's good enough, for now at least," mocking her sister.

The sisters returned two hours later with a lot of berries in their apron's pouches. Lana said, "So, how'd you go?" Lydia and Fiona emptied the berries that they'd picked on a table that was behind the one with all the berries on it. Lana's eyes widened as she surveyed their intake, saying, "Bluk, Nanab, Wepear, Pinap, Cornn, Magost!" She rounded on the sisters and glared at them as she almost plead, " _Tell_ me you've never collected Berries before."

Fiona asked, "Uhh…why?"

"Because, _none_ of these are of any use in medicine!"

The two sisters' eyes widened and they stepped backwards, saying, "Uhh…Nurse Joy…" as Lana advanced, the area around her eyes seeming to darken somehow.

Lana said, "The _pair_ of you! Come with me, _now!_ " the two sisters hung their heads and followed meekly behind Lana as she brushed past them. When she was out of the tents, she went into the market next door and said, "Hey, Bill, can you have someone look after my place for a bit?"

"Sure. I'll put Mikey on it."

"Just make sure that he only stays in the central tent unless he hears something fishy going on in the back."

"Sure thing."

"Thanks," Lana said, waving as she left.

Then, when she exited the store, she was all business and stormed past the sisters and headed down the main street of Pallet Town. About ten minutes of incredibly awkward silence later, they reached Professor Oak's Lab and went through the gate and up to the door. Lana knocked on it and waited until Gary opened it. When he had she said, "Hi," in a clearly annoyed, but not at him, tone.

"Lana? What is it? I thought that you'd be busy setting up that temporary ward."

"I was. Then _these_ two, came and, when I told them to get me some _very_ specific berries that can be used to make healing medicines, they bring me back lots of berries. _None_ of which are useful in any way, shape, or form."

"Okay. So…what can _I_ do about that?"

Lana said, "I was hoping that you have a few spare pokédexes lying about that you could give to this pair," thrusting her thumb at the two Apprentice Joys behind her.

"Hmm…I think that some just came in for the next batch of trainers. I suppose I could just give them two of those and postpone giving them their pokémon until some replacements came in."

"Really?" Lana asked happily.

Lydia, wasn't. she said, "You needn't bother. I'm sure that my sister and I will be fine without them."

"No, it's nothing, really," Gary said, turning to go back inside. He realized something before he could though, and asked, "Uhh…so…what were your names again?"

"Lydia Joy."

"Fiona Joy."

Gary said, "Great, thanks," before closing the door behind him as he went in and plugged some basic details into the pokédexes. He quickly came back out and handed them to the Joys. He said, it's a hi-tech encyclopedia that will automatically record data on Pokémon you've seen or caught, though you're going to have to manually enter the data for the pokémon that you already have."

Lydia said, "Yeah, we know what it does," as if she thought Gary thought she was stupid or something. She did.

Gary said, "Well, I'll see you later, Lana."

Lana said, "Yeah. Sure thing," as Gary closed the door. She then turned to the two Apprentice Joys and said, "Now, there's just one more thing before I call it a day for you two."

"Really?" Fiona said, her doubt fully evident in her tone.

"Yep," Lana said with a smile. She then walked past the sisters and led them back to the market. When she was about to enter, she said, you two can come in with me this time."

"Alright?" Lydia hesitantly said, unsure what was about to happen, but entirely certain that she _wouldn't_ like it.

When they were inside, Bill said, "Lana! Back already?"

"Yeah. I just had to get these two a couple of pokédexes."

"Seriously?" Bill asked, having thought that Nurse Joy had no need for them.

"Yeah. Turns out they couldn't tell the difference between a cooking berry and a medicinal one," Lana said, causing Bill to laugh.

When he saw the sisters glaring at him he said, "Wait…seriously?"

"We are _Apprentice_ Nurse Joy," Fiona said.

"Besides," Lydia said, "there's no need for us _to_ know how to identify them when we have every intention of working in a pokécentre."

She sighed and said, "In any case," picking up what she'd wanted and going over to the counter. "Can I buy these please?"

Bill, looking down at the lights that Lana had chosen, raised an eyebrow, to which Lana shrugged mercilessly. As he ran it through the system, Bill nodded at a rack and said, "You can take three of them, on the house."

Lana turned around and saw that Bill was pointing at a rack of rucksacks and raised an eyebrow, having looked at them earlier and putting the acquisition off due to the price. She said, "Alright. Thank you!" and walked over to the bags, picked them up and put them on the table for Bill to scan the barcodes to take them out of his system. When he was done, Lana shrugged one of the packs on herself and looped the other two over her arms, grabbing the torches before leaving the store.

As they left, bill called out, "You can tell Mikey that he can take the rest of the day off if he wants."

"Alright. Thanks again, Bill!" Lana shouted as she left, followed by the two sisters, who _didn't_ like the look of what Lana had just bought.

When they entered the central tent, Lana relayed Bill's message, but Mikey went back to the shop to finish off his day. As he left, Lana put the two rucksacks on her arms on the table that was serving as a front desk and put some headlamps and torches in the outer pockets. She then arranged them so that they were facing her two apprentices and said, "Right. The both of you, take these, go and get as many of those berries as you can carry, and _don't_ come back until you do!"

Lydia said, "You can't be _serious_! Surely?"

Fiona said, "I…uhh…think she _is_."

"No! I refuse!"

"Why's that?"

"You can't seriously expect us to go and gather berries in the forest at _night_?"

"I can, and I am."

"But…we won't be able to see! Let alone identify what berries you want us to get."

"And why do you think I bought those torches, hmm?"

"The…" Lydia said, trailing off, unable to come up with any way of getting out of the situation.

Fiona sighed and said, "Face it Lydia, there's no way to get out of this," and begrudgingly picked up the rucksack and slung it onto her back the way she had seen Lana do it back in the store. Lydia quickly followed, not wanting to be left alone in the dark of the forest at night. As the sisters rushed into from the tent, Lana sighed and shook her head and exasperatedly said, "What was Aunt Selene _thinking_ , sending the pair of _them_ to _me?_ " Lana then set about finishing setting up the 'lab' that she had been working on when the two Joys found her.


	4. Joyous Return

When Lydia and Fiona got back with their rucksacks as full as they could get them, it was almost eleven o'clock at night. Upon seeing the tent, they rushed towards it, wanting to get the massive weight off of their backs as soon as possible, but, when they got closer, they fell to their knees, a sobbing mess. Lydia cried out, "Whyyyy!?" The tents were shut.

Fiona said, "There _is_ no God!"

"Forget 'God'!" Lydia angrily said. "When I find where that bloody harlot, Ruffian Joy, is, I'm gonna wring her damn neck! How _dare_ she send us out on that jaunt in the dark and then lock us out of this damn…farcical imitation of a pokémon centre!"

Fiona said, "Lydia…I…don't think that Nurse Selene would send us to work with someone that would do such a thing," shrugging her rucksack off her shoulders.

"I bet she did this just so that she could be rid of _us_ , so she can focus on Hildy and Vivian!"

"Lydia, you _know_ that Nurse Selene isn't like that."

Lydia sighed and said, "Yeah. I know you're right, Fi. But still, _this_ is beyond what even Nurse _Ray_ lene could put up with."

"That is true…" Fiona said. "…which is also probably why she _didn't_ lock us out."

"Then why is the door shut?"

"Maybe there's some secret method or code needed to get inside?"

"Okay. So what would it be then?"

"Hmm…despite being a Ruffian Joy, she _is_ still a Nurse Joy, so…maybe Chansey?" Shockingly, nothing happened. "No? Then, Blissey or Happiny?"

"No," Lydia said. "Ruffian Joy's generally forgo the use of a Chansey-line pokémon. So…it could be…Roving Nurse Joy?" Still nothing. "No? Then how about Healing Pokémon?"

"Come to think of it, traditionally, Roving Nurse Joy have a pokémon related career outside of their work as a Joy."

"That's true. Say! Those pokédexes that she got us might be able to tell us what she is!"

"Oh yeah. They do have a link to the Pokémon League Databases," Fiona said, getting her pokédex out of her pouch. She flicked through the menu system to the 'search trainer history' page and typed in Lana Joy. It returned one record, though it was six years old. Fiona went into it and said, "It says that she's a coordinator and has a brother."

"What's his name."

"Why?"

"I read in an article once that when creating passwords people generally use things that are close to them."

"It seems that his name is Jayce Frances Aiden Joy."

"Maybe a nickname then?" Lydia said. "Jason? No. Frank? No. Not that either."

Fiona said, "Lydia…maybe _she_ read that article too, so made the password something different."

"Then that would mean that it would be something else, and we don't know enough about her to even _begin_ to guess what she could have used."

"True. We would need to know her more to guess…wait! Nurse Selene seemed to know her, so maybe _she_ could help us."

"Oh yeah! I think the latest rendition of the pokédex has a vidphone function too," Lydia said, taking out her pokédex and opening the 'call' function. She dialled in the number for Nurse Selene's room in the Viridian City Pokécentre.

When Nurse Selene answered it, her hair was a mess and her tiredness was more than evident in both her face and her voice as she said, "Who is it?" only barely able to make out the blurry image of a Nurse Joy's hair.

"It's me, Lydia, Nurse Selene."

"Oh! Lydia!" Selene said, her eyes clearing. "How is Lana?"

"The crazy bitch locked us out of the emergency ward she's made!"

"That doesn't sound like her."

"AND…that's after sending us out to pick berries at night!"

"Okay. That sounds more like her. But what do you want me to do about it?"

"We would like you to tell us what kind of password she would use to lock a door."

"Alright, show me." Lydia turned the phone around to show Nurse Selene the tent. In a flat tone, she said, "Lydia. That's a tent."

"That's right. So, how do we unlock it?"

"I'm going to give you some advice Lydia. Fiona, this goes for you too," Nurse Selene said, seeing Fiona move into the screen. "Lana, is tough. There's no doubt about it. But, she also cares and has a _very_ good sense of humour. So, right now, she's probably somewhere nearby laughing her head off at the pair of you," Selene said, hanging up before rolling over and going back to sleep.

When Nurse Selene hung up, Fiona turned to Lydia and asked, "What do you think she meant by _that_?"

"I…don't know. Maybe she meant that there is no lock?"

"No lock?!" Fiona exclaimed. "But then that would mean that anyone could just come along whenever they want and steal whatever it is she was working on after we'd left!"

"Well, can _you_ think of any other way to interpret what Nurse Selene just said?"

"Hmm…" Fiona sighed and said, "No. But then how _do_ we go about opening this thing?"

"Hmm…" Lydia said. "Maybe we should apply the same process that we were taught about when diagnosing pokémon ailments."

"Alright. So, process of elimination then?"

At the same time, in The Pallet House, Lana was hovering over a blue crystal that had a projection of the two Apprentice Joys' attempts to unlock her ward. Delia was watching too, frowning as she witnessed Lana clutching her stomach as she laughed loudly at them. She said, "Why are you laughing at those poor girls?"

Lana felt something strange in her chest at being admonished by Delia. She said, "Come on, admit it, that's hilarious!" pointing at the image.

Delia firmly said, "Go over there and put an end to their misery, _now!_ "

"Oh, alright," Lana said, getting up with a sigh. As she left, she thought, ' _Why don't I like it when she's disappointed in me?_ ' She made her way, slowly, to the tents that she'd spent the day setting up. She got there just in time, as the girls were about to cut into the material of the tent with their scalpels. She said, "Alright, that's about enough of that," in a loud voice, stopping the girls when their blades were just about to cut into it. Lydia and Fiona jumped at the sound of Lana's voice and turned to face her. "Are the pair of you _really_ that blind that you think that you need to cut an opening into it?" The sisters blinked, a blank look on their face. Lana marched over and pointed in the top corner of the door. She said, "See that? It's called a zip!" and unzipped the door. She pointed and said, "Now, _in_ ," and escorted the two into the ward.

She told them to put their packs to the side of the door to the central tent. When they had, Lana said, "Alright, now, _come_ ," before striding out of the tent and leading them to Delia's house, zipping the door closed behind them.

As they walked, Fiona asked, "Aren't you…you know…worried about thieves?"

"No. Why would I be?"

"Well…you spent a lot of time setting all of that up, so…"

"Well, I have a _very_ good security system in place, so there's no need to concern yourself about something like that."

"What kind of 'security system' could you possibly set up in a tent?" Lydia asked, bordering on demanding.

Lana ignored her and said, "I'll see if Delia can find it in herself to let the pair of you stay with her too, at least for tonight."

"Uhmmm…Delia?"

"The person that I'm staying with while I'm here."

"I see," Fiona said, before following Lana in an awkward silence. After a while she hesitantly said, "So…you know Nurse Selene?"

"Yeah. She and my mother attended the Academy together and have kept in contact."

"So, were you planning on going to Viridian City?"

"No. I actually wanted to keep on going to Hoenn, but it was getting late, so I stopped here. Then I found out that Professor Oak's Healing Machine, was well and truly out of date, so I offered to stay here as a Town Joy until he got a new one here."

"I see."

" _And_ he offered to run an unofficial tournament while I was here so I could get some battle training in too."

"Wait…oh! Right. You're a Roving Nurse Joy."

Lana raised an amused eyebrow and said, " _Not_ a Ruffian Joy?"

Fiona sighed and said, "I know that my sister and I can be a little…off-putting…at times. But, we do truly care about becoming Nurse Joy. And, despite everything, we know that Nurse Selene does do everything for a good reason. But…"

"'But'?"

"Why _would_ you want to be a Roving Nurse Joy?"

"Honestly?"

"Yes."

"My aunt is one."

"That's all?"

"Well…originally, yes."

"And now?"

"Well…to help as many pokémon as I can, of course. But…" Lana sighed. "There are other reasons too, but I'd like to keep them to myself."

"Alright," Lydia said, understanding that some things were better kept private.

When they got to the house that Lana had told them about, Lydia and Fiona went in after Lana, who said, "Delia, I'm ba-ackk!"

Delia came out of the kitchen and said, "Oh good, the apple pie is just abou…! Who are these?"

"These are the two Joys that Aunt Selene sent me to work into shape."

Delia raised an amused eyebrow and said, "Are you _sure_ that that's what she wanted?"

"Well, it's what's going to happen anyway," Lana said, causing Lydia and Fiona to look at each other with concerned, almost fearful, looks on their faces. "In any case, I said that you might consider letting them stay here tonight as well."

"Alright. But it'll have to be _just_ tonight. I don't have the room here for any more."

"That's alright," Fiona said. "Even one night is more than we should really be asking for anyway."

Delia said, "That's fine. I _will_ have a vacancy tomorrow night at the Inn, so you are more than welcome to come as a paying guest."

"Uhh… _paying?_ "

"Yeah. You know…money." Delia looked at Lana and said, "Are they…"

"Serious?" Lana asked. Delia nodded numbly. "Sadly, yes."

"How can they…"

"Nurse Joy are provided food and clothes as a thank you for their services by the pokémon league. My brother and I were quite surprised when we first left on our journeys."

"I see. Then…" Delia bit her lip and sighed. "I'm sorry. Unless you want to sleep in the tents that Lana bought, there won't be much that you can do for bedding, let along dining during your time in Pallet Town."

"That's alright," Lydia said. "We can just fly here from Viridian every day."

"No. It's _not_ 'alright'," Lana said. "What if someone comes in with a severely injured pokémon that needs multiple attendees to fix? Or there's a sudden rush while you pair are flying _to_ Viridian?"

Fiona sighed and said, "You know she's right, Lydia."

"Doesn't mean I have to like it."

"That's true."

"Don't worry about money," Lana said.

"Why? It would appear that it is something that we need to be _very_ mindful of while we're here."

"I've got you covered."

"Are you…sure?" Fiona asked.

"Yeah. Why?"

"Well…no offence…but you don't seem to…like us…very much."

"I don't need to like you to get the job done."

"I see," Fiona said. She then turned to Delia and asked, "So, where will we be sleeping tonight?"

"The couches over there should suffice."

"Wait! No _bed?!_ " Lydia exclaimed.

"There are only three bedrooms in this house, two of which are occupied, and the third is off limits."

"Off _limits?!_ " Why? What's so special about it?"

Lana said, " _Lydia_. That is _enough_ ," and looked at Lydia, her eyes glowing a raging blue. Seeing the nearly non-existent aura's of the two Joys, Lana realised that she'd subconsciously activated her aura vision, and shook her head, deactivating it, causing the blue glow to fade from her eyes. She said, "Sorry about that," seeing the fear on Lydia and Fiona's faces and something bordering on disbelief on Delia's. She sighed and said, "It's been a long day, so we should probably all get to sleep."

Delia said, "Yes, you're quite right." She stood up, thinking, ' _I should probably contact Ash about this._ ' She then made her way to her room for the night, as did Lana, who bade her a good night before turning into her room and putting on her pyjamas, getting into bed and turning off the lights.

As Lana and Delia turned in for the night, Lydia lay down on one couch, as Fiona did the other, and said, "Hey, Fiona."

"Yeah. What is it, Lydia?"

"What do _you_ think of this?"

"I think that this is the situation that we've landed in and we'll just have to deal with it."

"Yeah. But I meant with those blue eyes just now…"

Fiona sighed and said, "Yeah. I know. That freaked me out too. Any theories on what caused it?"

"Well, I'd say that it's pretty clear that it is somehow linked to her emotions. But as to the original source. Sorry. I've got no idea."

"It kind of reminds me of something that I read in a book written by Melania Joy, over in the Unova Region."

"What's that?"

"I'm not entirely sure because it's been a while since I read it, but I _think_ that it uses some form of energy to boost the innate regeneration abilities possessed by all pokémon. But, it seemed too much like magic to be believed."

"And now?"

"Who knows?" Fiona said, shrugging, "But, like you said, it's just a theory."

Lydia sighed and said, "I suppose it'd probably be easier just to ask her tomorrow, huh?"

"Yeah," Fiona said, rolling onto her side. The sisters were asleep within minutes.

XXXXX

At around five the next day, Lana got up and put on some black, full-length, running tights and a royal blue sports bra and a pair of open-fingered gloves before tying her hair into a ponytail and creeping out of the house, making sure not to wake the two sisters, who were still sound asleep. She put her key above the door frame and then took a run throughout the town alongside Lucario before making her way back. When she had, she didn't go back inside, instead, she stayed outside and said, "Well, Lucario, I think that we'll dial it down for today." Lucario let out a sound of agreement before getting into a fighting stance. They then spent about half an hour sparring against each other using only their physical might rather than augmenting their moves with aura, as, when they did, their 'sparring', usually took up an area larger than they had available in Delia's yard. When they were done, they crept back inside so that Lana could have a shower before getting dressed and going to the temporary pokécentre that she'd finished setting up the previous day.

When Lana reached the tents, she ate a few of the berries for breakfast before setting about sorting the berries that the sisters had gathered for her. When she was done separating them, she wrote down what they had collected, as well as the numbers in a ledger that she had bought from the newsagent near the store that she had bought the camping gear from. When she was done, she read over the list and said, "Well, what do you know. Those two did better than I would have thought." She went over to her satchel, which she'd left there the previous day, and took out two regular pokéballs and thought, ' _Should I, or shouldn't I? Hmm…Aunt Selene_ must _have sent them to_ me _to get them some field experience, otherwise she would have just sent them to some other pokécentre for hands-on experience. Given that, maybe I should just have them train one of their current…no. They'll probably only have their healing team, and I don't want to mess with that. Besides, doing it this way will let me get a proper grasp on their skill level._ ' She then got up from the table that she was working at and went into the central tent and placed the two pokéballs on the table in the centre of the tent. She then went out the back and planted one of each type of berry that Lydia and Fiona had gathered up for her so that she didn't have to send them off to find more and watered them with the SquirtBottle that she'd bought after she'd gotten the cooking berries off of the sisters and planted them.


	5. Nurse Lana Joy

At 8 o'clock, the two Apprentice Joys arrived at the Pokécent, as they had begun to call it and went into the central tent. Upon seeing no one there, Fiona turned to Lydia and said, "Maybe Delia was wrong and she _isn't_ here."

They heard Lana call them into 'the lab' and Lydia said, "Looks like she wasn't after all," as they walked past the desk, idly noting the two pokéballs on the table. When they were inside, Lydia said, "What are we to do, Nurse Joy?"

"You don't have to worry about that 'Nurse Joy', business with me."

Fiona said, "But…it's only right to show the proper respect to a superior."

Lana sighed and said, "Look. I am _well_ aware that neither of you view me in such a way, so why should we pretend otherwise?"

"Alright then. What _should_ we call you then?"

"Lana will do."

"Alright…Lana…what should we do first?"

"Take the two pokéballs that I put in the entry tent and go and catch a pokémon."

"Take…"

Lydia said, "Uhh…pardon my rudeness, but… _why?_ We already _have_ pokémon with us as it is!"

"That's true," Lana said. "But, I think that it's not enough to be able to heal the injuries of a pokémon. You should be able to understand the trainers that own the pokémon that you are healing. So, this one will _not_ have a primary function of healing, but battling."

"Why? What's the point?"

Lana sighed and said, "In any case, a Joy should be able to protect her pokécentre by herself if it comes to it."

"I don't' think we'll have the time to…"

"You can spend one hour in the morning and two in the afternoon training them."

"But then…we'd only be operating from nine until…four?"

"You'll be starting at seven from now on."

"Eehhh!?" The sisters simultaneously exclaimed.

"What do you _mean_ , 'eh?'" Lana asked.

"Well…pokécentres open at eight, so…I fail to see the point."

Lana sighed and said, "You don't have to see the point. You just need to do it."

The sisters dejectedly said, "Alright, Nurse Lana."

Lana smiled and said, "Now, get going," nodding towards the central tent.

The two sisters trudged out of the tent and made their way to the front desk, grabbed the pokéballs and exited the Pokécent. When they were outside, Fiona said, "So, what do you want to do, sis?"

Lydia said, "Go back home to Viridian City," only half joking. She sighed and said, "But seriously, I don't know. I've never even thought about catching a pokémon for the sole purpose of battle."

"Yeah. Me either."

"Maybe we should just go for a wander and see what we come up with."

"Yeah. Sure. Do you think we should go together, Lydi…"

Then, the two sisters heard a, "GET MOVING!" come from inside the Pokécent.

The sisters said, "Right!" in a high-pitch tone, jumping in fright.

Lydia said, "I'll see you soon, sis'," and turned right and walked away.

"Yeah, later," Fiona said, turning left, walking in the opposite direction.

XXXXX

A few hours later, both sisters returned at the same time and went inside. When they were before her, they placed their pokéballs on the desk that Lana was working behind. Lana said, "So, let's see them." the sisters released their pokémon and Lana saw that Lydia had caught a Pikachu and Fiona had somehow managed to catch a Taillow. She said, "Where'd you get _that_ , Fiona? It's not native to the region."

"I thought so too, but, I asked some dock worker if he knew where some rare pokémon were and he pointed me in the direction of some island offshore. I went there and found an entire flock of them, so I had Tsareena use Grass Whistle and put them all to sleep. This one somehow managed to stay awake and challenged me."

"And you beat it with Tsareena?" Lana asked with a sceptical look on her face.

"No. I released Lopunny to battle _it_."

"I see," Lana said before turning to Lydia and saying, "and you?"

"Nothing so dramatic I'm afraid. I just wandered through the forest for a while before coming across it. Sawsbuck's Horn Leech made short work of Pikachu."

"I see," Lana said. "Now, Lydia, Fiona, follow me." Lana led them into one of the side tents, seeing them pick up their pokémon and follow her. When she was in the right one, she stood at the end of the table and said, "Now, show me what you can do."

"Eh?" the sisters simultaneously asked.

"So what? This is all some kind of sick and twisted _test_?!" Lydia exclaimed.

"A test, no. I merely want to see what I have to work with."

Fiona asked, "Alright, who goes first?"

Lana shrugged and said, "Doesn't really matter to me."

Fiona looked at her sister and asked, "Lydia, do you want to go first?"

"I don't mind."

"Alright then," Fiona said, returning Taillow to its pokéball.

Lydia laid Pikachu down on the table and looked to the end of it and saw a number of bottles with spray dispensers attached to them. She thought, ' _Figy Potion, Wiki Potion, Mago Potion Aguav Potion & Iapapa Potion? Did she make potions from the berries that we collected yesterday?! But she said that they were useless! But, that aside, if that is the case, then these potions must contain the same properties as the berries. If that's so, then…_' She said, "Pikachu has a jolly nature, so it won't like things that are too dry, so the Wiki Potion is out. As is…actually…" Lydia stopped, seeing what she wanted. "It likes sweet things, so the Mago Potion is probably best." She then picked up the potion that she had identified and sprayed it into Pikachu's mouth.

After two squirts, Pikachu woke up with a, 'Chaa-aaaa!' and looked around with a smile before leaping onto Lydia's face and pulling itself up using her hair to sit on top of her head. Lydia tried to look up to get a better view of the rodent so that she could take it off of her head and reprimand it for using her hair as a ladder, but, it caused her Pikachu to tip off of the back of her head as she clutched at it. When Pikachu fell on the floor it started to laugh, causing Lydia's right eye to start to twitch.

Lydia looked to Lana and said, "How was that?" still annoyed that she was being forced to go through some sort of ridiculous, not to mention totally pointless, audition.

Lana ignored her and said, "Fiona, your turn," before she crouched down next to Pikachu and said, "So…you're not related to Ash Ketchum's Pikachu by any chance, are you?"

Pikachu cocked its head at her, saying, "Pika?" not understanding what an 'Ash Ketchum' was.

Lana shook her head and said, "Never mind. It's not really that important anyway."

Pikachu said, "Pika," nodding its head, with a look far more serious than Lydia had expected it to be possible for it to have.

When Lana stood up, she saw that Taillow was already standing up on the table. She blinked and said, "What happened?"

Fiona said, "I used the same potion that Lydia just did."

"Weren't you concerned about its effects?"

"No. Taillow has a Hardy nature, so it wouldn't matter which potion I used, none of them would have any ill-effect upon it."

"I see. Well, it's good that you take a pokémon's nature into account when using those potions to heal them, but there's really little point in it."

"Why's that?"

"Because, when I'm making them, I balance them out with powder from a berry that causes the opposite effect and Bitter Berry to protect against the confusion."

"Really?! You can do that?" Fiona asked, never having even considered mixing berries to change their effects."

"Yes."

"But…how?" Lydia asked, having come up with the idea, but, when she'd broached it with her lecturer at the time, the idea was dismissed without a thought. "The ratio would have to be exact for the berries to not clash against each other."

"That is true, to an extent. But, as the volume being made gets larger, the measurements actually become a lot easier."

"Really? How does that work?"

"It's a lot like cooking really."

"It's like…hu-uhh?!" Lydia and Fiona exclaimed.

Lana sighed and thought, ' _There's going to be more to teach them than I'd thought if they can't understand even that._ ' She said, "Alright. Lydia, you can use this room, Fiona, use the one on the other side."

"Huh?!" Lydia exclaimed. "But…I thought that you were supposed to be supervising us!"

"Yes, and, if either of you need help, I'll be happy to provide it, and I'll take over when more serious injuries are involved. But, I can't imagine that Aunty Selene would send me two Joys that are incapable of operating on their own. So, for the relatively lighter jobs, I've no doubt that you will be more than capable enough to handle them on your own."

"And, while we'll be working…you'll be doing what exactly?"

"I'll be taking care of procurement of the other things that we'll need for this Pokémon Centre."

"Okay. So then…who's going to man the desk out there?"

"Oh, that? That's easy," Lana said and smiled as she drew a strange pokéball, unlike any the sisters had ever seen, and said, "Lucario, come on out!" releasing it from the pokéball within her hand. When Lucario had appeared, the sisters noted that it seemed far stronger than any of their pokémon. Lucario blinked as he saw the two sisters that were clearly, like his trainer, Nurse Joy, except for the colour of their hair. He greeted them both before looking back to Lana, who said, "Lucario, I'm going to have you deal with the trainers and perform minor healing duties when you need to."

Lucario said, "Luca!" and went through the entrance to the medical tent, into the central, greeting tent.

When it was gone, Lana said, "I know what I said, but I don't really care which tent the pair of you decide to use, but they are equipped the same, so you can change them however you want, but I want it clean and tidy at the end of the day. Understand?"

"Yes, Nurse Lana!" the sisters said.

"But, for now," Lana said, "release your partner." Lydia and Fiona looked at each other and nodded before drawing out a pokéball from their pouches and said, "I choose you, Chansey!" releasing the standard healing pokémon from their region.

Lana rolled her eyes, but said, "Alright, you pair, go to whichever room your trainers choose and get accustomed to it. you'll be working there for a while."

"What about us?" Lydia asked.

"Us?" Lana asked. "We go to lunch," and left through the central tent, leaving Lucario at the main desk in case anything immediate came up.

As she did, Lydia came rushing after her, saying, "But…What about our pokémon?"

"What about them?" Lana asked.

"We can't just _leave_ now, can we?"

"I don't see why not. With the exclusion of injuries more severe than what can be expected from the pokémon around here, Lucario and Chansey can take care of minor bumps and ailments far more effectively than we can."

"But…what about _them_? They need to eat too!"

"There is more than enough food for them available here. For us though, it is a _very_ different story."

Lydia sighed and said, "What do you mean?" understanding Lana's point, but still not comprehending what she was saying since the berries that they'd collected _must_ have been all used up in the potions that Lana had made.

Lana grinned and said, "Look out the back," before walking off.

"Look out the…" Lydia said, before walking around the outside of the tents to see what Lana was talking about. Her eyes widened when she saw all of the trees bearing more of the berries that they'd collected. She blinked, not understanding what she was seeing. She went back out to the front to see that Lana had left, and her sister standing where she had been.

When her sister came back, Fiona asked, "Lydia, what…?"

"I…don't understand!"

"Huh? Don't understand? Don't understand what?"

"What the hell she did!"

"You're not making any sense, Lydia!"

"I need to talk to that…that…AARGHH!" Lydia screamed, grasping her hair in her hands. She glared at her sister and said, " _Where_ did she go?"

"Uhh…th-that way," Fiona said, pointing in the direction that they had come from at the start of the day. She watched her sister storm down the road, her strides longer than usual, as well as far more forceful. She called out, "Lydia! Wait!" and rushed after her sister to try to calm her down before they came across Lana.

XXXXX

Soon, the two sisters arrived back at the inn that they had spent the previous night in. Lydia exclaimed, "Are you KIDDING ME?!" unable to conceive of any reason that Lana would be able to have lunch there, having signed in and been informed that there was no lunch offered to guests.

They went in to the dining room that they'd had breakfast in and didn't see her. They looked at each other in confusion and sighed. They then went to the sign-in desk and rang the bell. It took a while, but Delia soon came to see who was waiting to sign in. Her eyes narrowed when she saw the two sisters standing there. She said, "Why are you two here? I already signed you on."

Fiona, in an attempt to not antagonise the nice innkeeper, said, "Well, yes, and we thank you for it, but we were wondering…"

"Where is that black haired witch?"

Delia blinked and said, "The…are you talking about Lana?" Delia demanded, annoyed that they were talking smack about her granddaughter, not that Lana knew that herself.

"That's right," Lydia said.

"Uhh…I'm terribly sorry," Fiona said. "Lydia can get rather…well…you know…when she thinks somebody is being completely unreasonable about something."

Delia sighed and said, "Alright," thinking on how Lana had been cackling about the two sisters' problems getting into the tent the previous night. She faced Lydia as she said, "She's in the house that you were at last night if you want to see her, but I would _suggest_ , that you take a _very_ different approach with her than you have with me, young lady."

"Noted," Lydia dismissively said before storming through the hallway that led to the backyard of the inn.

Fiona looked apologetically at Delia and shrugged before looking away and calling out, " _Lydia!_ Wait for me!" and rushed after her sister, in the faint hope that she could bring some sense of calm to what was looking to be a rather spectacular catfight if her sister had her way.

When Lydia was out of the inn, she made her way over to the house, ignoring the Mr. Mime that was watering the gardens, and the Leafeon that was lying next to the path. She opened the door so fast that her sister was surprised that it stayed on its hinges. She burst into the front room and looked around to see Lana wearing an apron with a smile on her face as she poured some powder into a measuring cup. She lost it. She said, "Are you _seriously_ telling me that you've left our pokémon back there, alone, just so you could bake a god damn cake!? How can you possibly consider yourself a Nurse Joy?!"

Lana looked up, furious at the impertinent Apprentice Joy questioning her ethics as a Joy. She said, "I _am_ a Nurse Joy, _trainee_." She forced the bag onto the bench and stepped around it. "As such, _I_ have final say on when you leave my tutelage. And I can make that a _very_ long time if I choose to." Lydia stepped back, horrified at the thought that she might have to follow the Ruffian Joy into the sticks.

That was when Fiona burst in. Feeling the tension in the room, she said, "Nurse Lana! Please, forgive my sister. She's clearly just overreacted to whatever it was she saw behind the Pokécent!"

"Pokécent? What's that?"

"Well…it's…uhh…urk!"

Lana sighed and said, "It doesn't matter, really."

"Well…it's what Lydia and I are calling the setup back there. It's a pokécentre made out of tents, so…we thought that Pokécent was appropriate! That's all!" Fiona said, squinting as she flinched away.

Lana sighed and said, "Pokécent, huh? Make's sense. I like it."

"Really?" Fiona asked in a squeaky voice, surprised at the light tone that Lana was using. When Lana nodded, she sighed in relief.

Lana said, "In any case," rounding on Lydia, frowning angrily. " _What_ is it that I have done that makes you think that you can question me as a Joy?"

"Where do you get off, carrying on like you did about what those berries that we collected were, and then go off and make a damn orchard out of them?!"

"I merely pointed out that the ones that you managed to acquire were not the ones that I directed you to get. I never said that they weren't useful. It's just that the ones that you got originally, weren't remotely close to what I asked for, and aren't useful in any way in crafting medicine by themselves. Including them with the ones that you subsequently acquired though, is a different story. I told you earlier that I used the Corrn Berry to counter the Wiki Berry's negative effects for pokémon that have a dislike of dry food. The same goes for the other berries that you collected. As to the orchard, I would have thought that you of all Joys would appreciate what I did."

"Why's _that_?"

"Because, now you won't have to go out and gather up more every night for me." Lydia and Fiona let out relieved sighs. "Although, if you really want to, I wouldn't forbid you from doing so."

"Uhh…no no. That's fine. Really.".

"As to what I'm doing now, I come from the Sinnoh Region. We have crafted certain recipes that have the effect of raising and lowering the condition of a pokémon using those same berries in the making of poffins. When I mentioned it to Delia, she said that it would be alright to use the kitchen in the inn to mass produce them if I could impress her with some made here. How you think that you can conflate that with me not being worthy as a Joy is beyond me!"

"Well…I…uhh…um…" Lydia sighed and said, "Sorry. I overreacted."

Lana sighed and said, "Well, I suppose I can't really say that I blame you, all things considered. In any case, would you like to learn how to make them?"

"I guess?" Lydia said, not seeing much point to learning it as a Nurse Joy, but able to, at least superficially, see the point of learning it to help out a trainer.

"Sure, Nurse Lana," Fiona said, hoping beyond hope that doing so would cause Lana to ease up in her criticisms of them and their performance whilst under her supervision which was, clearly, going to be hazardous to their health if it continued on as it was for much longer.

Lana, seeing the two different reactions, thought, ' _Clearly different reasoning was involved in their answers, but so long as the conclusion was the same, it doesn't really matter in the end._ ' She said, "So then, in that case…"


	6. The Joys Of Battle Training

The next day, Lana got up and put on her work out gear before tying her hair into a ponytail and crept out of the house. She put her key above the door frame and then ran the same route as she had the previous day, Lucario by her side. When they returned, they fought against each other again and, when they were done, they crept back inside so that Lana could have a shower and got dressed before making her lunch and going to the Pokécent. When she was there, she went in and grabbed one of the rucksacks from her tent before heading out the back and started picking berries from the trees to make more potions for the Centre. When she'd deemed that there was enough to cover what they'd used up the previous day, she went back inside and started sorting them. She was just finishing recording the haul into the ledger when she heard the zip opening in the central tent. She thought, ' _Ah, they're here.'_ She stood up from her desk and went into the central tent.

When she saw Lana emerge from her supply tent, Lydia exclaimed, "You're here!"

Lana smiled and said, "Of course. Now, come on, let's go," and moved back into the tent that she'd just come from. Lydia and Fiona looked at each other before shrugging and following after her. She undid the fly of the tent and exited before moving to stand at one end of the clearing before looking back at the two Apprentice Joys. Seeing them staring at her blankly, Lana said, "What are you waiting for, get over there," nodding at the other end of the clearing between the orchard and the tents.

Lydia hesitantly said, "Alright," not liking how Lucario was standing in front of Lana. The sisters walked slowly over to where Lana had indicated before Lydia said, "Okay, now what?"

" _Now_ , Lana said, "your training begins," a grin making its way to her face.

Fiona said, "Uhh…by 'training'…you wouldn't happen to mean…"

"I _mean_ , call out Pikachu and Taillow. They'll be fighting Lucario."

The sisters simultaneously exclaimed, " _What?!_ "

"You heard me. Call out your pokémon. I _did_ say that you'd be having battle training for an hour before the Pokécent opens, didn't I?"

"Well, yes, you did. But we thought that we'd be battling against each other."

"Seriously?" Lana asked, having never even considered the idea.

"Well, yeah. There's no way that Fiona or I could beat a Roving Nurse Joy."

Lana sighed and said, "Yeah, well, look at it the other way. What good would come from using each other as training partners at this point?"

"What good would it…"

"Two trainers of the same level battling it out against each other is one way for them to progress, there is little doubt of _that_. That is why many trainers actively seek out a quote unquote, rival. But, that is only after a certain point. At any time before you reach that point where you need someone to continuously pit your strength against, it's almost completely pointless. I am only here to get you to that point. In the first hour after you're done for the day, you'll be battling against each other before healing your pokémon, then, for the next half hour, I want you to analyse what's happened and then I'll battle you again for the next half hour, when I shut the Pokécent for the day."

"Alright," Fiona said, still not at all comfortable with the thought of facing off against someone in battle, training or otherwise. She drew Taillow's pokéball from her apron's pouch and said, "Gooo, Tailloww!"

Lydia rolled her eyes at her sister's dragging out of the words as she said, "Pikachu, let's do this," releasing it from its pokéball. When they saw their opponent, both pokémon lost all of their colour and rushed over to their trainers and scampered behind their legs, sensing nothing but overwhelming strength from it. Lana sighed and shook her head. Lydia turned to crouch down to address Pikachu. She said, "What seems to be the problem, Pikachu?"

"Pika _pik_ pik pika pika pik pika cha!" motioning first at Lucario then itself and Taillow.

Lydia said, "Look, I _know_ it's strong, but we're training right now to protect a pokécentre if it comes under attack. And it's not like the pokémon that we'd be facing in that situation would be terribly weak either."

"Pika?"

"Yes, really. Besides, I doubt that Nurse Lana will actually bring out all of Lucario's power against the pair of you."

Taillow had been listening in and looked to his trainer and cocked his head and said, "Tai-il?"

"Yeah, I'm sure she's right. Besides, this is training for us as much as it is for you."

"Tail?"

"Lydia and I, we've never actually trained for battle in our lives. All of our other pokémon are dedicated for healing."

Taillow exclaimed, "Ta-illl?!" his eyes widening, not at all assured by the statement that he would come out of the battle in anything close to a healthy state.

Lydia sighed and said, "Geez, thanks for the vote of confidence there, Taillow."

Taillow exclaimed, "Tail-tail tail taillowww!" moving its wings up and down, clearly distressed.

Lana said, "Taillow," gaining it's attention. "Fiona told me yesterday that you showed a lot of guts facing off against her Lopunny. Where's that now?" she then turned to Pikachu and said, "As for _you_ , I've seen Pichu that aren't anywhere near as yellow as you are."

Pikachu burst from behind Lydia's legs and said, "Pika! Pik-pik Pikachu!" gesturing wildly in protest.

"Oh yeah, then prove it!"

Pikachu emphatically said, "Pika! Pikachu!" getting into a ready stance as Taillow flew in front of Fiona.

The two Apprentice Joy could only blink as, in only a few words, Lana had managed to completely banish any sense of fear from their pokémon, having only met them for less than a minute the previous day. Lana said, "Alright, you pair can attack first."

"Alright," Fiona said. She turned to Lydia and asked, "Do you mind?"

Lydiai said, "No, go ahead."

"Thank you. Taillow, that looks like a fighting type, so use Peck!" Taillow let out a cry of acceptance and flew at Lucario as its beak glowed white and extended.

Lana said, "Lucario, Detect." Lucario's eyes glowed green as he predicted Taillow's attack path and moved out of its way at the last second.

Lydia said, "Alright, Pikachu, use Quick Attack!" Lucario, the dregs of Detect still in its eyes, predicted where Pikachu would be attacking from just before it completely faded away, and moved out of its way.

Lana said, "Use Shadow Claw, Lucario!" Lana said. Immediately, lucario's left paw was surrounded by purple ghostly energy that formed into a hand. It slammed it into Pikachu, who had yet to land, sending it crashing back to Lydia.

Pikachu sprung up and slid backward for a few feet before coming to a stop as Lydia almost shrieked, "Pikachu!" Pikachu looked to its trainer and let out a questioning sound. Lana asked, "Are you alright?"

As Pikachu reassured her, Lana thought, ' _So, she cares about it enough to ask if it wants to go on already? I'm surprised. I didn't think that she had it in her._ '

Fiona said, "Taillow, use…uhh…Steel…no, it's a fighting type, so Steel Wing will be ineffective at best. In that case, use Double Team!" Taillow let out a cry as it multiplied on the field.

Lana thought, ' _Double Team? What's she_ thinking _? There's no point to using Double Team in this battle. In any case…_ ' "Lucario, use Bullet Punch."

Fiona thought, ' _Damnit! If it had been Fiona's turn just now, I could have used Taillow's Quick Guard to protect us against it, but, as it is…_ '

As Fiona bit her lip, Lydia thought, ' _Bullet Punch? That's a Steel type move! A fighting type can use Steel Moves? There's no way! Unless…is Lucario part steel type? If that_ is _the case, then…_ ' She ordered, "Pikachu, use Thunder Shock!" Pikachu gathered its electricity and let fly with its attack almost instantaneously.

Lana said, "Lucario, stop and use Shadow Bone!" Lucario stopped its attack on Taillow and faced Pikachu as it generated a purple bone between its hands and started to twirl it very quickly. When Pikachu's attack reached it, it was moving fast enough to block it. But, Lucario went one step further and actually managed to redirect the attack at Taillow, who cried out in pain as the electricity rushed through his system.

Fiona cried out, "Taillow!" before rounding on Lydia and saying, "What did you do _that_ for?"

"Lucario is clearly part Steel Type, so Electric Moves should have a decent chance of inflicting damage, and, on top of that, Thunder Shock has a ten percent chance of paralysing the victim. Besides, how was _I_ to know that she could redirect it?"

Fiona cocked her head and said, "Alright, fair point. In any case, I've got an idea."

"Alright. What is it?"

"Would you mind letting me call an attack for Pikachu?"

"No, go ahead, if you think it's worth giving it a shot." She addressed Pikachu firmly saying, "Pikachu, listen to Fiona for now." Pikachu gave a confirming, 'Pi-ka!'

Fiona said, "Alright Taillow, use Peck again!"

Lana thought, ' _This again? Ah well,_ ' Lucario, when I tell you, dodge." Lucario let out a sound acknowledging the order. When Lana deemed Taillow was close enough, she said, "Now!" and Lucario started to move.

When Lana gave the command, Fiona said, "Now, Pikachu, Flash!"

Pikachu said, "Piiikaaa!" as its eyes glowed white and a blinding light shone forth, causing Lucario to flinch away and raise its hands to cover its eyes. It was perfectly timed too, letting Taillow's attack land. When Taillow was back in front of her, Fiona's eyes widened in surprise. Lucario was completely unscathed. She said, "What? But how? Lucario's a fighting type, so Flying attacks should be super effective against it!"

Lana said, "Lydia just said it herself, Lucario is a Steel Type too. That more than covers its weakness to Flying Type attacks."

"That's…not fair!"

"Lesson one, f _air_ , has nothing to do with battle. You need to be able to adapt to different situations if you want to succeed." Lana grinned as she said, "Of course, even then it may not be enough," thinking on her battle almost seven years ago, and the similarities between the two. "Well, that said, you've got the right idea there Fiona. But your execution is wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"Trainer and pokémon playing together and working together. That is the creed of the trainer. Double battles have another element thrown into them."

"What do you mean?"

"The base is still the same, but you also need to coordinate with your partner, rather than having one person coming up with the plans and then executing them together. Especially when it comes to this format."

"What do you mean? What's so special about this format?"

Lana sighed and said, "You can look it up later. Now, get your minds back in the battle."

The sisters simultaneously said, "Right!" and refocused on the battle.

XXXXX

The morning shift went off without any problems arising. For lunch, Lana had hers in her tent while Lydia and Fiona went to a café that they'd seen when they'd been searching for Lana the previous day. When they got there, they sat down and waited until a waiter came to take their order. Once they'd given it, Lydia pulled out her pokédex and said, "Right, now we need to look into that battle format that we were using this morning."

Fiona asked, "You were still thinking on that?"

Lydia scoffed and said, "Like you weren't." Fiona shrugged, conceding the point as she moved her seat around so that it was next to her sister's so that she could see what she was doing. Soon enough they found what they wanted after putting Lana's name next to '2 vs 1 Pokémon Battle' in the pokedex's PokéTube app. They watched the video of Lana and her brother against a Frontier Brain as they ate their lunch. By the time that it ended, they were a quivering mess. Lydia said, "We were…battling against…a monster like _that_?!"

"Nurse Lana…she's… _how?_ I mean, I've heard rumours from some trainers from the Hoenn Region that they have a Frontier Brain that was as strong as their Champion, but I'd never believed it. Now though, I'm starting to believe it."

"Either way, I think that we should broach Nurse Lana about finding someone _else_ to be our training partners, don't you?"

"Yeah. If her Lucario is anything like _his_ , it's probably a good idea."

They hurried through the rest of their meal before going back to the Pokécent. When they were there, they went into Lana's supply tent and she looked up and asked, "What's the problem?"

Lydia said, "You fought against a Final Frontier Brain when you were _twelve_!"

Lana sighed and said, "So, you looked it up, huh?"

"That's right. What's your point?"

Fiona exclaimed, " _And_ you almost beat him!"

Lana scoffed and said, "No we didn't. Jayce and I stood no chance against him."

"But you _beat_ one of his pokémon!" Fiona objected.

"Yeah, sure. We beat _Floatzel_. What's your point?"

"What's our _point_?!" Lydia exclaimed. "You said that there was no point seeking out a rival until we reach a certain point, right?"

"That's right. Why?"

" _You_ can't get us to that point."

Lana said, "Explain?"

"The gap between where we are and where you are, is _far_ too great. So we would like it if you could arrange somebody closer to our level to train with."

Lana sighed and said, "I can talk with Professor Oak about arranging something, but…in the end, you may just be stuck with me."

"Be that as it may, if your Lucario is anything like what we just saw there…" Lana started to laugh. Lydia, put out by the mocking laughter, said, "What's so funny?"

Lana sighed, amusement still in her voice. She said, "My Lucario is still nowhere near as powerful as his mother."

"Wait! His _mother?!_ Do you mean to say that Ash Ketchum _gave_ you Lucario?"

"That's right. Why?"

"Uhh…no offence, but why would he do that?"

"Well, at the end of the battle you just saw he asked me what I wanted to do, and I told him about wanting to be a Nurse Joy, but, I couldn't find a healing partner."

"Seriously?" Lydia asked, neither she nor Fiona having had any difficulties finding a Chansey in the Safari Zone.

"Yeah, and, as luck had it, the Riolu that Lucario evolved from had just hatched, and he hadn't started to train it yet, so he gave it to me."

"That's, kind of a weak reason," Lydia said.

"Yeah," Fiona said. "You're not like, secretly his daughter or something, are you?"

"No, don't be ridiculous," Lana said dismissively. "Now, get back to work."

"Right!" the sisters said and rushed to their respective tent.

When they were gone, Lana sighed and said, "In any case, I'd better go and see Professor Oak about what those two wanted. It'll give me more time to work in the Pokécent anyway." She got up and left, leaving Lucario in charge while she was gone.

Lana quickly made her way to Professor Oak's Lab and knocked on the door. When he opened it, Gary exclaimed, "Lana! What are you doing here?"

"Well, I'm giving the apprentices that I was sent some battle training, and they're complaining that I'm too strong to be able to train them myself."

"I see. Well, you're in luck. Almost all of the villagers here have some level of pokémon training experience. I suppose that if they want to, I could spare them some time."

"I'm…sorry, but they started freaking out when they found out that I fought against Ash Ketchum _once,_ six years ago and I lost badly. I don't think that they would feel at all comfortable battling against you, who has fought him to a draw multiple times."

Gary sighed and said, "I suppose that I can see your point. Hmm…well, I suppose that it's a long shot, but Delia could do it." Lana raised her eyebrow, questioning the sanity of the idea. "No no, seriously. She may be _his_ mother, but she's never actually gone on a pokémon journey herself."

"Really?"

"Yeah. The story that I heard was that when she was about to, she got pregnant with Ash. So she gave up on it and bought the Pallet House from the previous owner and focused on that instead. She's caught and acquired a number of pokémon over the years and has some innate talent in battle."

"I see. I'll bring it up with them when we've finished for the day."

"Well, if that's all…"

"Yeah. Sorry if I took you from some new discovery."

"No, nothing like that," Gary said. "I was just getting some training in for Magmortar and Arcanine."

"Alright. Thank you for this."

"No problem. If you need anything, just ask and I'll see what I can do."

"I'll…keep it in mind," Lana said uncomfortable at the thought of what Gary included in 'anything'.

XXXXX

When they were done for the day, the second round of battle training included, Lana said, "Well you pair, I went to see Professor Oak earlier about what you were saying."

"Really?" The sisters said, brightening up immediately after the thrashing that they'd just received. "What did he say?"

Lana said, "He said that he would be willing to do it for you," causing the two to lose the colour in their faces. Lana thought, ' _Nailed it.'_ She said, "But, I told him that you two might balk at that, so he told me to broach the idea with Delia."

"With… _Delia!?_ " Fiona exclaimed. "That's probably just as bad!"

"Actually, according to Professor Oak, she's never once gone on a pokémon journey, but has still acquired quite the collection of pokémon, and battle skills to go with them. So, if you want to come with me now…"

"Of course," Lydia said. "Actually, come to think of it, I was going to ask you something about that battle this morning."

"What about it?"

"Before it started, you managed to steel the resolve of our pokémon with barely a sentence."

"Is there a question there?"

" _How_ did you do it?"

"Oh. That's easy. With Taillow, I have a Flareon that has Guts as its ability and it can't _stand_ when someone questions its fortitude and takes it as a challenge to prove them wrong."

Lydia asked, "What about Pikachu? When we were looking you up 'that night', we saw that you _don't_ have a pokémon from its evolutionary family."

"You're right. That one should be obvious though." Both sisters looked at her blankly, causing Lana to sigh. She said, "After my brother and I were thrashed by Ash, the very first thing that I did was study his pokémon and the strategies that he used with them."

"Seriously?"

"Yes. And, I found out that his most-used pokémon, is Raichu. So, I undertook an in-depth study of its line of evolution and found that, by and large, Pikachu, don't like being compared to other pokémon of the same colour. I don't know why, but they do. This morning, I just figured that using its pre-evolved form would be a more effective motivator."

"I see," Lydia said as they reached Pallet House.

When they were inside, Lydia rang the bell at the desk and waited until Delia was there, far more patiently than she had the last time that she'd rung the bell. When she was there, Delia said, Lana! And you pair! You're not going to get into another fight, are you? Because, if you are, please take it outside."

"No, nothing like that," Lana said with a smile.

"Oh. Alright then, what is it that you're here for?"

"Well, I said that I would give these two some battle training, but, they seem to be of the opinion that I'm some sort of monster. So, I went to Professor Oak and asked him about arranging someone and he suggested you."

" _Me_?"

"Yes."

"Hmm…" Delia said. She looked the sisters over and said, "Alright, but they'll need to take a late lunch if they want to do this."

"Why?" Lydia asked.

"Well, I've got to look after the rooms of the Inn. That can take me a few hours, then I'll need to have lunch myself before I even think about training the pair of you."

"I see. That makes sense," Lydia said.

"Of course, I'm also considering offering lunch for the next two weeks, but I'd need an assistant to help in the kitchen while I take care of the rooms.

Lana grinned and said, "I know some two people that need some cooking training."

"Really?" Delia asked, as the two Apprentice Joys blanched. "Who? It's not like you've been here that long, really."

Lana stepped back so that she was behind and between Lydia and Fiona and pushed them slightly forwards. As she did, she said, "This pair."

Delia frowned and said, " _Why_ do you want them to do that?"

"Because, I tried walking them through my poffin recipes yesterday and you saw the result."

"Hmm…" Delia said, looking up and to the right. "Y ou know what, you're absolutely right. You _do_ know just the person that I need."

"I know, I can't look after every bit of their…"

Delia cut Lana off saying, "You, Lana, are perfect for the job."

"Huh? Me?" Lana said, pointing at herself. "Why? I don't need any help."

"I know. That's exactly why I need _you_ to do this with me."

Lana sighed and said, "But I need to supervise…"

Lydia said, "You haven't overseen our work _once,_ " willing to say anything to get out of cooking for as many people as the inn could cater for."

"Sure I have," Lana said.

" _When?_ "

"Right after you caught Taillow and Pikachu."

Delia looked at Lana aghast. She said, "Aren't you supposed to be training them?"

"I am."

"How?"

"Look, while they're working on gaining experience, I'm making potions to replace those that are being used. I would teach them the nuts and bolts of it, but if they were screwing up those poffins as bad as they were yesterday, when I was _there_ , hovering over their shoulders, I'm not sure that there's much point."

"Hmm…I can see your point. Alright. How about this then? After I'm done with their training, they can help me with dinner?"

"That's fine. But it's going to have to be one at a time."

"Why's that?"

"Because, then I'll be covering for them at the Pokécent and, well, even _I_ can't be in two places at once."

"Okay. That's fine then."

"Oh, and I'm not going to be able to do it on Saturday or Sunday either."

"Why's that?"

"I'll be entering the tournament."

"You're entering?"

"That's right. Why? What's the problem?"

"Oh, no problem, but…" Delia looked at Lydia and Fiona.

"Ah. You don't need to worry about that. Auntie Selene will be coming to take over for me during the tournament."

"Nurse Selene's coming here?!" Lydia and Fiona exclaimed.

"That's right," Lana said, "didn't she tell you?"

"No. She never mentioned a word of it," Fiona said.

"Maybe she wanted it to be a surprise," Lana theorised.

"You…clearly don't know Nurse Selene very well."

"Oh, I wouldn't know about that," Lana said. "She's gets annoyed when the 'surprise' distracts her from her work or makes it more difficult, but other than that, she's usually pretty good with them. But, in the end, it really comes down to the 'surprise'. Like when you called her that first night to get advice on unlocking a non-existent lock on the entry tent."

"You… _know_ about _that_?!" Lydia exclaimed.

"Of course. It was hilarious," Lana said, chuckling a bit as she recalled their antics.

Delia disapprovingly said, " _Lana_."

Lana sighed and said, "Yes, yes, I'm sorry," waving it aside. "In any case," Lana said, looking at Delia, "do you want them to start working with you on dinner now?"

"No. It's too late into the service for what they'd need. If you want to step in though, you'd be more than welcome."

"No. I'll be fine. I think I'll use the time to make some poffins in your kitchen if that's alright."

"Certainly," Delia said with a smile. She looked to the sisters and said, "There are a number of recipe books in the kitchen in my house if either of you want to try your hand at anything, so long as it doesn't interfere with Lana's poffins." She faced Lana and said, "And I'll be trusting you to make dinner too."

"Alright. Do you have anything particular in mind, or…"

"No. just use whatever is there."

Lana said, "Alright, thank you Delia."

XXXXXXX

A/N

I don't like doing this, that's why I haven't thus far, but please review; what you like, what you don't or what you'd like to see. All of this helps, unlike the 'review', done by Farla, who seems to like to go from story to story, pointing out where the author's stylistic preferences differ to theirs.


	7. Roving Nurse Joy

The day before the tournament, Selene called a meeting with her trainees. When they were all there and she had their attention, she said, "I'm going to be in charge of Pallet Town's Temporary Centre for a couple of days, and I'd like you, Adaline, Edrea, to come with me."

Edrea said, "But, what about the other two, Lydia and Fiona?"

"You only just got here, so you'll be working as their assistants, just while the tournament is ongoing, since they know what's what and where everything goes in the Pokécentre that they've set up.

"Alright Nurse Joy," the two Apprentice Joy said.

Selene said, "Now, come with me," and led them outside, leaving the rest of her trainees to work under her sister while she was away. When they were all outside, Selene drew three pokéballs from her apron and said, "I choose you three!" tossing them into the air. When they were released, her two Apprentice Joy, gaped at the sight of the three flying types.

Edrea said, "These are…"

Selene said, "Skarmory, Aerodactyl and Charizard," as she walked over to Aerodactyl. She said, "I'll take Aerodactyl. The other two are relatively stable flyers, so you should have no problems staying on them."

"Hold on! When you say 'staying on them'…you don't mean that we're actually going to have to ride those things…you know…in the air, right?"

Selene said, "Of course I do. What else _could_ I mean?"

"Well, you see…" Edrea gulped. "Adaline and I…we believe that humans should stay where they belong. On the _ground._ "

"Well, too bad. You're going to have to get over that at some point, and right now, it's too late to get there by foot in time for the tournament that we'll be working at."

The Apprentice Joy looked at each other and sighed, resigning themselves to their fate as Charizard and Skarmory let out sounds of encouragement. When they had mounted the flying types, they took off with ease and headed straight for Pallet Town, having made the trip many times before, when they delivered medical supplies for Professor Oak.

Selene's flying types being _much_ more powerful than either Lydia's or Fiona's meant that it took them just over an hour to get to Pallet Town. When they were, they landed outside the tents that had been set up in a type of Y-formation and Selene returned her flying types to their pokéballs. She then went in, followed by her two apprentices. Seeing Lucario standing behind the desk, Selene said, "Lucario! It's been a while." Lucario responded with a grin and a few welcoming sounds. When Lucario had finished, Selene asked, "So, where's Lana?" Lucario let out a few sounds before pointing at the opening behind it. "And my two apprentices?" Lucario told Selene that it would be better to ask Lana. So Selene asked, "Can we go and see her then?" Lucario nodded, letting out an accepting, "Lu ca!" and slid the bit of wood covering a gap in its bench to let them through.

When they went into the tent, Lana looked up and said, "Aunt Selene!" with a smile. "You're here!" and stood up and threw her arms around Selene.

Selene smiled and returned the hug, saying, "That's right Lana."

They both let go and Lana said, "I thought that you said that you couldn't make it?"

"There's a meeting of the Kanto Pokécentre Committee tomorrow. When I said that, I thought that I had to attend it myself. Apparently, only the attendance of one Ranking Joy is needed, so I got Raylene to fill in for me. That aside, do you mind telling me where your Apprentices are?"

"They're helping out at Pallet House right now."

"They're…Huh?" Edrea gasped, knowing that 'Pallet House' was basically a regular Bed & Breakfast joint, even if it did have a good reputation. "Why are they working there? They're Nurse Joy!"

Lana grinned and said, "Maybe so, but, _here_ , I'm the one in charge and I determined that that was the best way to get their skills up to where they should be."

Adaline said, "But, as my cousin said, they're Nurse Joy, so what good would cleaning sheets really do?"

Lana smiled and said, "They're not parlour maids, if that's what you're thinking."

"Then…"

"Why don't you pair go and ask them? I think that I should probably talk with Nurse Selene for a bit."

"Alright, Nurse Joy," the two Apprentice Joy said.

Lana rolled her eyes at the echoed reply, causing Selene to smile. When the two Apprentice Joy were gone, Selene said, "So, Lana, exactly why _are_ they working at Pallet House, and what are they doing?"

"Learning how to cook."

"How to…"

Selene sighed and said, " _Please_ tell me that you had a reason other than punishing them?"

"Of course I did! Although, to be fair, that was certainly at least a small part of it."

"Why? What did they do?"

" _Lydia_ thought that she could question me about 'how I could possibly consider myself a Nurse Joy'. But, mostly, it was that after that was settled, I tried to teach them one of my Poffin recipes, and they messed them up royally, so passing on any of my other tricks, like what I've got set up here…" Lana motioned around the tent. "…would be nigh on impossible."

"I see. How have they responded to your…more unusual training methods?"

"Surprisingly well. After the first couple of days, they got into the routine that I'd set them, and got to work without much fuss. Though they did balk at the battle training that I was putting them through, after viewing that video of Jayce and I battling against Ash Ketchum. The pair of them ended up forcing me to go to Professor Oak to arrange someone else for them."

"I see. Who did he arrange?"

Lana grinned and said, "Delia Ketchum."

"Was that _your_ idea?"

"No. I had nothing to do with it. They tried to ask for another, but Professor Oak convinced them that Delia would be perfect for them to train with at their level."

Lana then stood up and said, "So, do you want to see their workspaces?"

Selene said, "If that's alright," as she followed Lana from the supply tent.

XXXXX

Meanwhile, the two Apprentice Joy had reached Pallet House and went inside. Seeing no one there, they rang the bell at the counter and waited until someone came out to see to them. About a minute later, Fiona came out and saw two Trainee Joys that she didn't know. She said, "So, are you the ones that Nurse Selene was going to organise to come with her?"

"That's right," Adaline said.

"So, what can I do you for? Although it'll have to be quick."

"Why's that?"

"I need to get back before Delia starts to get annoyed."

"Uhh…who's 'Delia' and why would she get annoyed?"

"Because, she's teaching me how to make stuffed meatballs to serve for dinner tonight."

"I…see. Wait! No I don't! Why are you doing that?"

"Nurse Lana has some rather…unusual methods when it comes to training. This started out as one of them, and it's only been a few days since my sister and I started, but I think that it's actually kind of fun."

"It's…huh?" Adaline exclaimed, unable to comprehend what she was being told.

"Besides, it's not like a lot of pokécentres don't have eateries attached to them."

"If…you say so."

"So, how has your training been under Nurse Selene so far?"

"Rather steady. She's tough, but she tries to be as fair as she can. Although it would appear that she doesn't really like it when we try new techniques that we've learnt without her being there."

Fiona said, "Yep. That sounds about right. You wouldn't _believe_ the number of times that she's taken Lydia and I to task over that."

"So…do you need to get back now, or…"

"Yeah. You can go and help either of our Chansey with their work if you want to do something while Lydia and I are working here."

"Work with your…are you sure that that's alright?"

"Yeah, of course it is!" Fiona said. "We're all Nurse Joy here, right?"

"Right!" the cousins said, happy to be referred to as such, despite having just finished their theoretic training at the Kanto Nurse Joy Academy. As Fiona started to walk back inside, Adaline called out, causing her to turn back around and ask what she wanted. Adaline said, "Uhh..when will you be finished tonight?"

"Around eight o'clock. Why?"

"Well…can we ask you some stuff about training at Viridian Pokécentre?"

"Sure, I don't mind."

"Great!" Adaline said with a wide smile. She waved farewell, as she chased after her cousin with a spring in her step.

When Adaline and Edrea entered the Pokécent, Selene was saying, "So, you're thinking of moving on after the tournament, are you?"

"Yeah. I reckon I can stay on here for another week or so, but I've really _got_ to get underway."

Selene smiled and said, "I guess I shouldn't be surprised, really. Even as a kid you couldn't sit still."

"Aunt Sele-ene!" Lana whined, before they both broke out laughing. Lana saw the looks on two apprentices faces and laughingly said, "I think we might be scaring your trainees."

Selene looked at the entrance as she got her laughter under control. When she had, she said, "So, how were they?"

Adaline said, "We only got to see Fiona for a couple of minutes before she had to go back into the kitchen."

Edrea said, "But, she said that she and Lydia would be available to talk after they were done at around eight."

"So, why are you back here?"

"Nurse Fiona suggested that we could work with their Chansey while they were busy."

Lana said, "Huhn. Well, would you like some one-on-one teaching with Selene and I?"

"Uhh…I'm not sure that that would be very…beneficial…Nurse Lana."

"Oh? Why's _that_?" Lana pointedly asked.

"Well…this _is_ a tent, so I don't see how it could…"

Selene said, "Lana, calm down," as she saw her eyes narrow.

Lana let out a breath before saying, "So, you've been out of the academy for how long now?"

"Uhh...well…"

Selene said, "Adaline. Nurse Lana is a _Roving_ Nurse Joy. They don't _have_ a dedicated pokécentre to work at, so they tend to get more creative with their treatments and work areas than regular Nurse Joy typically need to. That _doesn't_ make their methods any less valid, or useful, than any other." She then turned to Lana and asked, "So, do you have any spare?"

Lana grinned and said, "You know me too well," and reached around her back to her pokébelt and took out a pokéball. She gave it over to Selene and asked, "Who are you going to take?"

Selene turned to the apprentices and said, "Adaline, you're with me. Edrea, you go with Lana." The two apprentices hesitantly nodded.

Lana said, "Here, you'll probably need this too," handing her pokédex over to Selene."

Selene looked at it and smiled. She said, "I'm not sure that _I_ need something like _that_ ," only very slightly less than insulted that Lana thought that she needed it.

"No," Lana said, "Not _you_ ," her eyes flicking to Adaline.

Selene said, "Ah. Right." She took it and handed it over to Adaline as they went into the room on the left.

When Selene and Adaline were gone, Lana said, "Alright, you can come with me." Edrea silently followed Lana into the other medical tent, surprising the Chansey that was in the middle of using Heal Pulse on a Nidoran that Professor Oak had brought to her that got transferred to the Oak Lab after being caught earlier in the day. Lana nodded at it and said, "Keep going. We can wait until you're done."

Chansey let out a thankful tune and nodded before focusing on one spot, intensifying its healing energies. It didn't take too much longer to finish healing it and Chansey let out a satisfied, "Chaa-aaan," when Nidoran jumped up and thanked it before going over to the pokéball that it had come in in. It tapped it, letting itself get sucked into the ball.

When Nidoran was back in its pokéball, Lana asked, "So, was that your last one for the day?" Chansey nodded. "Alright then." Lana faced Edrea and said, "So, you're probably better with working alongside Chansey, than I am, so I'll let you take the lead for this," as she drew another pokéball from her belt and placed it on the table.

Edrea hesitantly said, "Actually…you'd be wrong there."

"Really?" Lana blinked. "I thought that all City Joys used them, or pokémon just like them."

"They do. But, I couldn't find one. I did find myself a Gothita that could use Heal Pulse though, so _she_ became _my_ healing partner."

"I see," Lana said, blinking. "I'm sorry, I just assumed that…"

"No, it's fine. Really," Edrea said with an apathetic smile.

Lana said, "Then in that case…" Then, in a loud voice, she called out, "Lucarioo!" and Lucario came rushing in. Lana said, "Looks like we'll be operating together on this one, buddy." Lucario's entire visage lifted as it smiled and rushed to Lana's side as she moved around the table. Lana nodded at Edrea and said, "Now, you call out your partner."

Edrea reached into her apron and drew out a Dusk Ball. She said, "Come on out, Gothitelle!" releasing it next to her.

Lana blinked and said, "Damn, Edrea! With a Gothitelle as strong as she is, you'd probably make a pretty good Roving Joy." Lana saw a strange look quickly pass over Edrea's face and thought, ' _So, is it that she_ does _want to and there's some reason that's stopping her from doing it, or is it something in her past that is holding her back? Either way, I'd like to know a bit more about her situation before I broach it with Aunt Selene._ ' Lana shrugged as she thought, ' _In any case, that can wait. For now…_ ' she tapped the pokéball that she'd put on the table, releasing a Garchomp that was heavily bruised, but still awake.

Edrea blinked at what Lana had released. She thought, ' _What the?! That's a…a…_ ' and staggered backwards. She looked up at Lana, and thought, ' _What in the world was she fighting that could have reduced a GARCHOMP to the state it's in? There are no pokémon around Pallet Town that should be capable of…wait! Nurse Selene asked if she had 'any spare'. Does that mean that_ she _did this in order to capture it?!_ '

She said, "How did you capture it in the state it's in?"

Lana blinked and said, "You think that…" and started to actually laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"Garchomp and I have been together since just before I enrolled in Sinnoh's Academy." She rubbed Garchomp's neck and said, "Haven't we girl?" Garchomp slowly shifted its head in a nod.

"Then how did…no. What did…no. What _could_ do…this?" Edrea asked, pointing along Garchomp's body.

Lana grinned and said, " _That_ would be the pokémon that Aunt Selene is working on now with your cousin."

Edrea blinked and said, "Then…are you trying to say that this was _training!?_ "

"That's about the gist of it," Lana said.

Edrea sighed and said, "I'm not sure that I could do that to my pokémon."

"Oh. Right. Yeah. I'm not training them because I'm a Roving Nurse Joy, if that's what you're thinking."

"Then…why _are_ you doing it?" Edrea asked as she and Lana started to work with their respective healing partner.

As she worked, Lana said, "When I was on my first pokémon journey, I ran across a really stupidly strong trainer that challenged my brother and I to a battle."

"Really? Who was it?"

"That doesn't really matter. He has a Garchomp of his own, though he didn't use it and still totally decimated us. After that, he granted me entry to the Battle Frontier within the Hoenn Region. I was about to take up that challenge before I found out the Mk IV Healing Machine that Professor Oak owns is a dud."

"But wait. You're a _Joy_! How can you work your pokémon this hard, let alone take part in pokémon battles, where the sole intent is to inflict harm?

"Hmmm…" Lana said. "You know, I've never really thought about it. I suppose that, ultimately, there's nothing to heal if there are no injuries that have been inflicted. So, in a sense, I'm just making more work for myself," Lana laughed.

"You…was that a _joke_?"

"Not entirely." Lana sighed and said, "Look, I know what I say and do may seem contradictory. Believe me, many _, many_ , of our fellow Joy have gone to some rather ridiculous lengths to point it out. But I, for one, am happy to be a living contradiction."

Edrea started to laugh at the announcement. When she was done, she came to an injury that she needed a potion to accelerate the healing of and looked to the dispensers that Lana had prepared. She blinked when she saw the names. She looked to Lana and said, "These potions are weird. Which one should I be using?"

"That's probably because I had to make them from some berries from the orchard that I planted out the back. I labelled them with the healing berry used. What do you know about pokémon natures and how they affect the berries that they can eat?"

"We were taught that certain berries have effects that will bring either beneficial or detrimental effects. But, that was as far as it went. There was nothing mentioned about products made from them."

"Well, the potions that I make, I mix in berries that balance out the effects of the main healing ingredient, as well as one that can counter the confusion that can occur from a pokémon consuming the wrong type of berry."

"In that case, it shouldn't matter which type of potion that is used, so why name them differently?"

"Because, if I got the ratio even a little off, the effects of the main ingredient can still make their way through the balancers. If that _does_ happen, not only would the pokémon heal, but it would also go out of control and start attacking blindly. If it was suffering from being poisoned as well, then…well, I don't think I need to tell you what would happen then."

"No," Edrea said, thinking, ' _that means that the measurements must be_ very _exacting. Almost too much for a set up like this. So…does she make use of the implements at Pallet House, or Professor Oak's Lab?_ '

Lana, seeing the thoughtful look, asked, "What are you thinking?"

"Well…it's just that the ratios of the berries would need to be very exac…wait! Is that why you've got Lydia and Fiona working at Pallet House?"

Lana grinned and said, "That's right. I tried teaching them a basic poffin recipe, but they ended up with a doughy mess. I don't have the luxury of time to teach them the proper method while I'm here, so, I figured that working in Delia's kitchen would be an acceptable compromise."

"But then their work here would be…"

"Nurse Selene wouldn't give me apprentices that were completely incapable of working by themselves, so I let them take care of the healing, whilst I make the supplies that they'll need to do so. That said, if there's anything that Lucario doesn't think that they can handle, I step in and it turns into a session much like this one."

"I see. That's different to how Nurse Selene does it."

"Yeah. I know. It's also the difference between a Roving Joy and a City Joy."

"What do you mean?"

"We Roving Joys tend to be rather individualistic and, to a large extent, loners. City Joys, well…aren't. That said, we still enjoy working alongside others. Our healing team also tends to include two 'head' healers."

"What do you mean?"

"You have Gothitelle as your head healer, right?"

"That's right. What's your point?"

"Well, Lucario here, is mine. But, he's also one of my more prominent battlers. So, I also have a Gothitelle that can take over when Lucario and I are defending them, and the pokémon that we are healing at the time."

"I see. Wait! Why are you telling me this?"

Lana said, "Heh, who knows."

" _You_ must. Otherwise you wouldn't have said it."

Lana sighed and said, "Well, you seem to be a bit different to the other City Joys that I've met before. Also, just before I started _my_ training, someone pointed out to me that there are multiple paths that can be taken, even for Nurse Joy."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you know how there's City Joys and Roving Joys?" Lana waited until Edrea nodded before going on. "Well, apparently, Registered Joys, of any sort, are automatically able to act as judges for Frontier Battles."

"Really?!" Edrea exclaimed.

"Of course, there's also the PIA Joys as well."

"Oh yeah. I might try out for that. Actually…how _do_ you become a PIA Joy?"

"I've no idea. I've always wanted to be a Roving Joy, so mostly ignored the other types. You could probably ask Nurse Selene about the other paths."

"I see. I think I'll do that. Although…"

"What's the problem?"

"Adaline and I have always wanted to work together, and she's _never_ expressed an interest in being anything other than a City Joy."

Lana sighed and said, "I know how difficult dealing with stubborn relatives can be. But, ultimately, you need to make the right decision for you. besides, I've never heard of any Joy having any problems with having a side job." Lana rolled her eyes before saying, "Arceus, just about every Roving Joy has at least one herself."

"What about you?"

"Me?" Lana questioned. Edrea nodded. "Usually Coordinator and Aura Guardian, but currently Frontier Challenger."

"What's an Aura Guardian?"

"Urk!" Lana blanched. "I…actually said that. Didn't I?"

"Yeah. You did."

Lana sighed and said, "It's basically someone that can make use of their aura that does all sorts of good stuff to keep the world in balance when it goes out of whack, or is about to anyway. We also tend to have a partner pokémon that can also use aura."

"A pokémon that can use aura too? You mean like Mienshao?"

"That's right. But Lucario here is mine. Why ask about Mienshao?"

"Well, I have one."

Lana raised an eyebrow and asked, "Have you read Melania Joy's book on spirit healing?"

"No. What is it about?"

"That can serve as a pretty good introduction to the use of aura. Of course, our abilities extend _very_ far past what is talked about in that book. If you _do_ have the gift, and can make use of the methods identified in that book, you might want to visit the Sinnoh or Hoenn Region. Apparently there are masters that can teach you the more advanced techniques there."

"What about you?"

"I've got no idea where I'll be by the time you could use those techniques, but those two can pretty much always be found in the same spot. Besides, I trained under the one in the Sinnoh Region."

"Then how do you know about one in the Hoenn Region?"

" _That_ , is the one that told me about there being multiple paths for Nurse Joy."

"I see. Thank you for telling me of this, Nurse Lana."

Lana said, "Now, back to what we were talking about earlier. Garchomp has a Serious Nature, so none of the potions that we've got here will inflict confusion in it."

"Right!" Edrea said, having almost forgotten about what she'd asked about due to the nature of their discussion.

XXXXX

After they'd finished healing Lana's pokémon, Selene and Adaline met Lana and Edrea in the central tent, where Selene handed Lana her pokéball. As she did, she said, "Flygon is going to be fine. But…" Lana raised a questioning eyebrow. "…exactly how _did_ it come by those injuries?"

"Battling against Garchomp."

"Ah. That explains it. I'm sure you know this, but even a strong Flygon is _far_ weaker than the average Garchomp, so you probably shouldn't be pitting the two against each other. And, from what your mother has told me, your Garchomp is _far_ from average."

Lana said, "The thing is, Flygon _wants_ to fight against a speedster like Garchomp so that it's ready when it comes time to face off against Ketchum's Noivern."

"Well, if that's all it is."

Lana grinned and said, "They'll be fine. Trust me, I never put them through anything that they couldn't handle."

"Well, so long as you keep that in mind when training them, it should be fine."

"So, do you want to have some dinner?"

"Sure. What did you have in mind?"

"How about we go and see how Lydia and Fiona are doing at Pallet House?"

"Sounds good," Selene said. She turned to her two apprentices and asked, "So, do you two want to come too?"

Adaline shrugged and said, "Sure, I guess."

Edrea said, "It's not like we've got any better ideas."

With that decided, they went to Pallet House and ordered their dinner. Lana and Selene were pleasantly surprised by what they got. Adaline and Edrea, not having known the twins very long, were unaware of their issues in the kitchen, weren't surprised, but still enjoyed their meal nonetheless. When the service was done, Delia came out and gave the new Joys access to one of the empty rooms for the night, though she was booked out until the end of the next week, so they would need to find somewhere else to stay going forward. After that was organised, Selene asked, "So, how has Lana been while she's been here?" Delia sat down in a chair opposite while Lana tried to object to the line of questioning. As the barrage of questions started to come, Lydia and Fiona asked the cousins if they'd like to come up to their room to talk, while the others talked.

When they were upstairs, Edrea faced Lydia and asked, "So, what do you think of Nurse Lana?"

Lydia said, "She's a sadistic bitch, who shouldn't have been allowed to enter the academy, let along graduate." The statement caused Fiona to laugh as the cousin's faces twisted into stunned disbelief.

Edrea said, "I don't think that…she's that bad. Well, from what I just saw anyway."

Fiona asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well, we just finished healing up two of her pokémon and Adaline worked with Nurse Selene while I worked with Nurse Lana. She seemed more than capable enough to have graduated, probably at the top of her class."

Lydia said, "Well, I don't know what happened when you were working with her, but, the very first thing that she did when we arrived, was send us out to pick some berries in the woods. When we didn't get the right ones originally, she sent us back out there, in the dark, to get some more. Then, we thought that she'd locked the tent on us! When we got to the Pokécent the next day, she had made potions out of them! _Then_ , she had us go out and catch a pokémon, just so that we could heal it. After _that_ , the sanctimonious bitch had us join Delia in the kitchen! Oh, that's after her version of 'battle training'!"

Edrea said, "The way she explained it to _me_ was that she pointed out where you went wrong, found a method so that it wouldn't happen again, and then had you do something that would get you to the point that she could teach you the method to make the potions that she was using, as well as pass on some kind of recipe for something."

Lydia sighed and said, "That's _one_ way of looking at it, I suppose."

Adaline asked, "What's the other?"

"That she's a sadistic, vindictive bitch that likes to issue cruel and unusual punishments."

Adaline looked to Fiona and asked, "What do you think?"

Fiona sighed and said, "To be quite frank, I'd say that it's probably a mixture between the two; well, minus the sadistic bit."

Edrea said, "Nurse Lana said that Roving Joys tend to be individualistic loners, so it _could_ just be that she's unused, or has problems with, working with others."

"Maybe," Lydia admitted, though the other Apprentice Joys could hear the doubt in her voice.


	8. The Tournament Begins

The next day, Lana got up and went through her normal routine before going over to the Pokécent to make sure that everything was ready for the tournament and that there were more than enough potions to take care of the damage that the other Nurse Joy would likely need to deal with. When she was about halfway through her stocktaking, she heard the main door open and rushed out to see who, or what, it was. It was Selene. She said, "Selene! You're here? Already!?"

"That's right. Why are you so surprised?"

"Oh, it's nothing, really," Lana said, scratching the back of her head.

"Lana. I _know_ you. That is how I know that you're lying."

Lana sighed and said, "Sorry. It's just that Lydia and Fiona were…rather argumentative…when I told them that they'd be starting at seven."

Selene sighed and said, "I really wish that I was surprised, but a lot of the girls at my pokécentre have the attitude that so long as they get to the pokécentre on time for it to open, everything will be fine. It's an acceptable attitude for Apprentice Joy to take. Even newly Registered Joy too. When it comes to those in charge though, well…we're both here now, aren't we?"

Lana smiled and said, "I guess so."

"Out of curiosity…"

"What?"

"How long _have_ you been here for?"

Lana looked at her pokétch and said, "Hmm…I'd say…probably a little over an hour now. Why?"

"Heh," That's even earlier than when _I_ get to _mine_."

"Well, to be fair, you don't need to make your healing items from scratch."

"Fair enough. So, how _do_ you make these potions of yours?"

"Well…"

XXXXX

Later that day, the town was bustling with people both from Pallet Town, and the surrounding towns and cities, most of which were curious about this Inaugural Battle Festival that Professor Oak had arranged. A few were even trainers that registered for the tournament that was to be held.

At ten o'clock, all of the trainers that had managed to sign up for the tournament were standing on the field. Professor Gary Oak stood before them and said, "Before we commence this Inaugural Pallet Town Tournament, I am going to have to inform those participating that there is an additional prize to the Pallet Town Tournament Trophy." With that, the participants started talking amongst themselves, trying to come up with ideas about what it could be, including Lana, who had been so focused on her work that she hadn't even known that there would be a trophy involved.

Gary continued, "Since we have someone from the Sinnoh Region participating in this tournament of ours, I thought that it would be appropriate for someone from the Sinnoh Region be present as one of the judges. So, I contacted an old friend of mine, who agreed to come here for the weekend. So, without further ado, I would like to introduce to you all, the final Frontier Brain of the Sinnoh Region's Battle Frontier, The Battle Imperator, Paul!"

Paul made his way onto the stage to the awe of just about everyone there, including Lana, who had always heard rumours about his strength, but never had the chance to make her way to Veilstone City to watch one of his matches. She had heard that they got televised locally, but other than that, it was all very secretive. When he was on the stage, he said, "In addition to the Pallet Town Trophy, both the winner and the runner up will gain access to the Sinnoh Battle Frontier. Also, for today only, Pallet Town will be playing host to the Battle Colosseum. In that vein, I will also take part in a battle against the victor. Recently, the owner of the Battle Frontier, decided that there should be some merit involved in these exhibition battles that we Final Frontier Brains take part in from time to time, so, he came up with alternative first symbols for all of the Regional Battle Frontiers, to be awarded to if the trainer emerges victorious in battle. On top of that, for today only, the victor will also receive a mega set for one of their pokémon." When Paul had been planning his speech, he had tried to make it sound as dramatic as possible, but, unfortunately, his tone belied his words to the point that any excitement that the words should have imparted, had been completely removed from them. He grunted when he didn't get the reaction that he had expected and said, "In any case, the first match will be between Lana Joy, from Floaroma Town, and Ralph Fangen, from Viridian City."

 _That_ got the reaction that Paul had been expecting from his previous announcement. There was lots of cheering, for Ralph. Lana got nothing, except for a few citizens asking if the person next to them if _they_ knew where Floaroma Town was. She thought, ' _Well that's just great, isn't it? I mean, sure. I get that Ralph is from Kanto, and I'm from Sinnoh, so of course he's going to have some sort of home region loyalty from the people of this town, but I was sure that I would get at least_ some _! Well, I guess that I've got no choice. I'll beat the hell out of him and move on. That should get me_ some _people on my side._ '

When they were at opposite sides of the battlefield, Lucario standing next to Lana, they realised that they had no idea who would be going first. So, simultaneously, they both looked to Gary and Paul, who were sitting on seats that had been set up on the stage, and Ralph asked, "So, who goes first?"

Paul said, "Well, since you're from this region, why don't you go first?"

"Alright," ralph agreed, shrugging as it didn't affect him one way or the other. He drew the pokéball that he'd brought with him and said, "I choose you, Tony!" and threw his pokéball onto the field. It burst open, releasing a Nidoking, which let out a roar, announcing its presence to all.

Lana raised her eyebrow and thought, ' _Nidoking huh? Interesting choice. Although, maybe not if he's from Viridian._ ' She said, "Let's do this Lucario," and Lucario walked onto the field.

From his seat, Paul thought, ' _She's going with Lucario? But wasn't that rumour at home saying that there was a Nurse Joy with black hair that used a Lucario as a partner? Was it_ her _? But then why in the world would she be using it in battle? Normally the healing partner of a Joy are trained to heavily rely on defensive methods. If that's so, then it's going to be interesting to see how she intends to fight against a powerhouse like Nidoking. Even normally, most of Lucario's attacks are physical, so they need to get in close to inflict any real damage. Of course, conversely, a lot of Nidoking's greatest abilities rely on poisoning an opponent, which is nigh on impossible for a steel type like Lucario._ '

When Paul leaned forwards, Gary asked, "Interested in this one, are you?"

"Well, back home there was a rumour about a Nurse Joy that used a Lucario as a healing partner. If that's Lana, then she might be in for a difficult time of it, and she _is_ essentially representing our home region in this tournament of yours too."

"I see. Well, I wouldn't worry too much."

"Why's that?"

"Apparently she tried to give the apprentices that she was working with some battle training with Lucario. According to them, Lana is, in their words, 'a monster'."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Like her father?"

"Like her…what do you mean, 'her father'?"

"Don't play dumb. You can see the similarities, just as much as I can."

Gary sighed and said, "No fooling you, is there?"

"I didn't get to where I am by being blind."

Gary sighed and said, "Well, don't say anything. According to Ash, she has no idea herself, although she _might_ be beginning to suspect something, given all the time that she's spent with Delia while she's been here."

"Her grandmother? And she hasn't made the connection?"

"It could be that she's just unwilling to make it."

"Hmm…that's not good."

"Why's that?"

"If she hopes to conquer any Battle Frontier, she'll need to know everything about herself beforehand, especially this."

"Why's that?"

"You may have forgotten after all this time, but bringing emotions into battle means that they can be used against them. That's especially true for when she comes to face off against the Battle Historian."

"The Battle…Historian? Who's that?"

"One of the Frontier Brains from Hoenn. I don't suppose you need _me_ to tell you what kind of pokémon he uses."

"No. In any case, are you going to tell her?"

"No. that's a matter for her family. I _will_ however be talking with her grandmother before I leave."

"Do you want to go now?"

"Hmm…no. I'd like to see this battle through to the end first."

"Alright," Gary said, turning all of his attention back to the battle.

Ralph said, "Alright Tony, use Poison Jab!"

Lana thought, ' _Poison Jab? Against Lucario? Seriously?_ ' she shrugged and said, "Alright then, Lucario, generate a Shadow Bone and wait until it's closer." Lucario clutched its hands together before spreading them apart, generating a purple bone between them. When he took a hold of it in both hands and flourished it, both ends caught fire. After that he waited until Nidoking was closer. Nidoking's claw glowed purple as it closed on Lucario and, when it was about to punch at Lucario, Lana said, "Alright Lucario, redirect it." Lucario backed away as it swung its bone around, hitting the outside of Nidoking's arm, causing it to lose its balance, and go onto one foot as it tried to regain its it. Lana wasn't going to let it and said, "Now, Lucario, take it down!" Lucario hit the back of the Nidoking's knee on the leg that was still on the ground, causing it to fall backwards.

Ralph called out, "Tony! Get up!"

Lana said, "Lucario, use Aura Sphere!" Lucario generated the attack far faster than anyone that was watching had thought possible and fired it directly where Nidoking's face was going to be as it rolled away.

Lana waited as Nidoking pushed itself up. As she did, Ralph thought, ' _Why is she waiting? Is it that she thinks that there's no point in attacking now? That she can win at any time?! The hell with that!_ ' He said, "Tony, use Sludge Wave!" A pool of dark purple sludge seeped out from under Nidoking's feet before it thrust its hand forward, causing it all to surge up into a stream that surged towards Lucario.

Lana said, "Lucario, use Full Orb Aura Sphere!"

At the announcement of Lana's attack, Paul thought, ' _Full Orb Aura Sphere? What the heck is that?_ ' as did every other trainer that knew of the Aura Sphere attack.

Lucario gathered up its aura and formed an Aura Sphere, then kept on pouring in more, until it was three times the size of a regular Aura Sphere, which it threw at the centre of the stream. It pushed through with ease, forcing the stream to the side on its way to contact Nidoking.

Gary's eyes widened as he thought, ' _That's just nuts! Who would have thought to come up with such a simplistic way to increase a move's powe…Oh. Right. Ash's daughter. I almost forgot there for a second._ '

Nidoking was panting when it pushed itself back up. Lana said, "Ralph," gaining her opponents attention.

Ralph said, "What is it? You decided to give up?"

" _No_ ," Lana said, her irritation at the thought clear in her voice. "I was just going to give you the chance to do so."

"Why would I do that?"

"Look at Nidoking." When Ralph was looking at Nidoking, Lana said, "Now, look at Lucario." When Ralph looked at Lucario he saw that, unlike Nidoking, Lucario was showing no signs of fatigue at all. "I don't want to hurt Nidoking any more than I have to, so I'll give you this one chance to walk away."

"I can't do _that!_ " Ralph exclaimed.

"What's more important to you, Nidoking's wellbeing, or your pride?"

"What? Do you honestly think that that puny thing that you've got there can actually injure Nidoking to the extent that you seem to be suggesting?"

Lana sighed and said, "Well, I tried. That has to count for something, right buddy?" Lucario nodded and sounded out his agreement. She said, "Lucario, end this with Bullet Punch." Lucario nodded and crossed the field instantaneously before punching Nidoking with a metallic fist, knocking it to the ground, and out.

When Nidoking fell backwards, its eyes turning into swirls, Ralph dropped to his knees and looked at Nidoking. He looked up at Lana and tried to ask how she did it, but all she said was, "I suggest that you go and take Tony to the Pokécent." Ralph nodded numbly, unable to fully comprehend what was happening as he returned Nidoking to its pokéball.

XXXXX

As Lana left the field, Paul stood up. Gary looked over at him and asked, "Where are you going?"

"I told you. I need to see Delia about this situation with Lana."

"Alright, but you'd better be back before this round is over."

"I'll try, but you know that I can't make any promises on that."

"Fair enough," Gary admitted.

With that done, Paul quickly made his way to Pallet House, his pace just shy of running. He soon arrived outside it and went inside. He rung the bell and a flushed Delia came rushing out, needing to get whoever was ringing settled so that she could get back to the kitchen, already running late preparing for the lunch service. When she saw who it was, she exclaimed, "Paul! What are _you_ doing here?"

Paul said, "I _was_ here as a judge for the tournament, and to battle against the victor."

"And now?"

"I need to…discuss…something with you that you will probably not like hearing."

"What's that?"

"Lana."

"Oh," Delia said in an understanding, if somewhat saddened tone. "What about her?"

"You need to tell her that Ash is her father."

"I can't do that."

"She _needs_ to know, Delia."

"What do you mean?"

Paul sighed and said, "It's for her own good."

"What do you mean, 'her own good'?"

"In the Hoenn Battle Frontier, there is a particularly annoying Brain that researches very deep into the history of a challenger before forming the strategies that he will use against them. If he reveals it to Lana before or during their match, and he will, it will draw her attention away from the battle and onto _him_. Until she comes to terms with it, she will have _zero_ chance of facing off against her father. Even if, by some miracle, _he_ doesn't, Ash _will_."

Delia looked aghast at Paul. She said, "Ash wouldn't do that."

"Yes, he would. The role of a Frontier Brain is to push the challengers to the limit of what they can handle, so that they can go on to become even better than they were before. Ash's Facility tests the challenger's mental fortitude, their resolve as well as the strength that they have acquired over their time with their pokémon."

Delia sighed and said, "I'll discuss it with her mother. It was her decision to keep that knowledge from Lana, so it will be her responsibility to inform her."

"Who is it?"

"Nurse Marnie Frances Lynette Joy. She's from Floaroma Town in your region."

"Alright. Then I'll talk to her when I'm on my way home then."

"Thank you," Delia said, "It'll save _me_ an argument."

Paul smirked and said, "Anything to see Ketchum fall."

Delia smiled and said, "I'd expect little else from you."

Paul said, "Well, I've got to get back now."

"Of course," Delia said, bidding Paul farewell.

XXXXX

When Paul got back, he asked Gary how it had gone while he was talking to Delia. Gary said, "They've been total mismatches. Ralph's wife, Emily, used her Nidoqueen against Violet's Hitmonlee. Hitmonlee got taken out in one hit from Nidoqueen's Earth Power. Next was Phillipe up against Gabrielle. They used Rhyperior and Lopunny respectively. I don't think that you even need to guess who won that one."

"No."

"Then, Erica beat Tommy's Kangaskhan with Magnezone. Just now, you missed Corey facing down Keith's Garchomp with Meowstic. Again, the result was always going to be obvious."

"I should think so," Paul said, remembering when he faced off against Cynthia's Garchomp all those years ago.

"Who're these two then?"


	9. The Contradictory Cerulean Confrontation

"According to the registrations, the one on the left, is Kimberly Tyler, a…'Battle Girl', from Saffron City. The other one is Leanne Waterflower, a coordinator from Cerulean."

Leanne said, "I'll go first, if you don't mind?"

"By all means!" Kimberly said, surprised that a trainer would willingly put themselves forward to go first.

"Alright than," Leanne said, drawing a pokéball from its slot on her belt. "I choose you, Incineroar!"

Lana thought, ' _Incineroar?! Then it_ is _Leanne after all. It's been a long time since I last saw her. I wonder how she's doing on The Circuit? In any case, if she's going with Incineroar right off the bat, then she must be pretty eager to get through to the next rounds. Kimberly is going to have her work cut out for her. I wonder what she's going to…!_ ' Lana's eyes widened momentarily before narrowing at the sight of Kimberly's Blaziken letting out a challenging call. Incineroar let out a few disparaging sounds, questioning whether Blaziken's strength was enough to get worked up over.

When Lana heard its remarks, she sighed and shook her head, covering her eyes as she thought, ' _That's not good. How could she have spared working on_ that _for all this time?! Well, I suppose that as a fully evolved starting fire type, it_ would _have it relatively easy in battle. Even so, Kimberly looks like a Battle Girl, and her having a fighting type like Blaziken, only lends credence to the theory. Incineroar's dark typing puts at a_ distinct _disadvantage to begin with, if I'm right, and Kimberly_ is _a Battle Girl, then her experience with fighting types puts her far in the lead. Well, on paper anyway. The sheer fact that Leanne is related to Misty, should give her the confidence that will be needed to fight a losing battle like this one is probably going to turn into._ '

Kimberly said, "Before we start, I need to ask you something, Leanne."

"What is it?" Leanne asked.

"Well, two actually. The first, is your last name, it's the same as the Leader of Cerulean Gym, right?"

"That's right," Leanne grouchily said. "What of it?"

"Don't trainers from there usually use water types?"

"We do, and I do, but, when I came here, I left all but Swanna at home, which I need to get back. Given that there's no pokécentre here, well…you understand."

"Yeah."

"Hey!" Lana called out. "I'll have you know that there _is_ a pokécentre here!" stepping through the crowd.

"Eh? Don't be absurd!" Leanne said. "I didn't see one when I flew in this morning, and it's not like they're something that you can really miss."

You saw the tents set up outside those stores, right?"

"Yeah. What about them?"

"What do you think _that_ is, huh?"

"Wait…seriously? You think that _that_ is a pokécentre? Wow, I didn't know that there were any nutjobs like you here. Mum always said that the people from this place are sincere and smarter than most others."

"I'm not from here! Didn't you _hear_ them say that I'm from Sinnoh!?"

"Where you're from doesn't matter! A tent is a tent and a pokécentre can't _be_ in a tent!"

From his spot in the judge's chair, Gary shook his head with a strange smile on his face. Paul looked at him and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Ash and Leanne's mother used to travel together, regularly getting into fights over supposedly ridiculous ideas that he came up with, but generally ended up being right, though even now, I still say that that was mostly by accident."

"Heh, seems that he hadn't changed all that much until I ran up against him in Sinnoh."

"No. By that point he'd beaten both the Orange League and the Kanto Battle Frontier. Trust me, he'd changed plenty by that stage."

"Is that so?" Paul asked as the argument between Lana and Leanne petered out.

The referee said, " _Now_ , can you begin?"

"Sure," Leanne said, "Incineroar, use Brutal Swing!" Incineroar's fist was covered in black and green surging energy as it ran at Blaziken.

Kimberly said, "Blaziken, use Fire Punch!" Blaziken's fist ignited as Incineroar charged at it.

As Blaziken waited, Leanne thought, ' _Is it not going to move? What the hell?! I thought Kimberly was supposed to be a, quote unquote, battle girl. So why is Blaziken just waiting? It's not like it'll be able to generate enough power to counter Incineroar's force like tha-!_ ' leanne's eyes widened as Blaziken twisted its chest as it countered Incineroar's attack. She demanded, " _How?!_ "

Kimberly asked, "What do you mean 'how'?"

"How did Blaziken generate enough force to do that? I didn't see it move an inch!"

Kimberly shrugged a shoulder and said, "Beat me, and I might tell you."

Leanne growled and said, " _Fine_ , Incineroar, Darkest Lariat!" Incineroar extended its arm, which glowed a very dark purple and swung at Blaziken.

Kimberly said, "Sky Uppercut." Blaziken ducked under the lariat and swung up with a glowing light blue fist. When it connected, it lifted Incineroar up into the air. Before it began to descend, Kimberly said, "Now, use Blaze Kick." Blaziken's right foot immediately ignited and it brought it into Incineroar's stomach, sending it rolling back. When it reached the halfway mark, Incineroar extended its arm, grabbing a hold of the ground, bringing its roll up short and used it to get to its feet. When it was, it slid back a few more metres before stopping, back where it had been at the beginning.

Leanne thought, ' _Hnh, Battle Girl indeed. It's been a while since I last met someone that could hold their own against Incineroar in battle. Still, I suppose that I should probably treat this as a contest battle, rather than as a trainer battle if I want to win. Blaziken is clearly used to fighting straight up, so I'll need to tire it out before I get a chance to land a decisive blow._ ' Incineroar, use Double Kick!" Incineroar charged at Blaziken again and kicked at Blaziken's side.

When it began the initial kick, Kimberly said, "Blaziken, use Low Sweep." Blaziken ducked under the kick, and swept Incineroar's last foot off of the ground, causing it to fall to the ground. But, it had been told to use double kick, so it continued to try to at least land with the second kick. Kimberly though, said, "Now, use Low Kick!" Blaziken kicked the leg that Incineroar was attacking with, knocking it spinning around.

Leanne called out, "Throat Chop!" and Incineroar's lower hand glowed purple and tried to slam the side of it into Blaziken's throat. It failed as Blaziken pushed itself up, spinning over Incineroar's prone form and pushed itself up with it's arms.

Kimberly said, "Use Low Sweep Blaziken!" Blaziken swung its foot around and kicked Incineroar from the field.

The referee said, "Incineroar has left the field of battle, and is disqualified. Kimberly wins."

Leanne dropped to her knees in shock. She thought, ' _How?! It was supposed to be_ me _that was using tricks like that! How could I…I…_ ' she glared angrily at the ground.

That was when Leanne heard Lana say, "Well, that was…interesting…at least."

Leanne sighed and said, "So, how have you been?" as she took the hand that Lana had offered to help her up.

"I've been good. How's the circuit been without me?"

"Heh, boring as hell. Speaking of which, where _have_ you been all this time?"

"I told you, didn't I? I started my training as a Nurse Joy after we were done in Unova."

"Then that thing about the tent is true then?"

"Yep," Lana said, smiling. "I set it up to take care of the pokémon around here until Professor Oak gets a new machine."

"Maybe you should think about making it a permanent fixture. From what Mum was telling me, there are a few rumours about the latest Professor being easily able to be consumed by his research, leaving less time to take care of sick and injured pokémon of visiting trainers."

"I see. I'll…think on it."

"So, are you healing everything yourself, or…"

"Nah. I got Aunt Selene to send me some apprentices, so I leave most of the healing work to them."

"Then…what exactly do _you_ do?"

"I make the potions and elixirs that they need to do their jobs, though they were rough around the edges at the beginning, they've pretty much settled in over this last week that we've spent together. Heh, even the battle training that Delia's been giving them has been paying off."

"Delia? As in Delia Ketchum?"

"That's right. Why?"

"Isn't she the mother of…you know who?"

"That's right. Is there a question there?"

"No no, just curious if you'd gotten over…you know…'that'."

"It's been six years now, Leanne!" Lana exclaimed. "Besides, if I'm not, then I'm going to have one hell of a time challenging the Hoenn Battle Frontier."

"The Battle Frontier? Then you've abandoned the circuit?"

"Abandoned…no. But my return _is_ going to have to be put on the backburner for a while."

"So, revenge is it?"

"Hmm…it is…but, for some reason, I can't help but feel like there's more to it than that. Though I really couldn't tell you why that is. It's just a feeling that I have."

"What kind of feeling?"

"I don't know. Almost like…I'm moving towards an answer to a question that I've not realized that I've asked yet."

"That…well…quite frankly, makes just about as much sense as anything else you've ever said."

"Geez, thanks Leanne," Lana said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "In any case, you interested in going to Hoenn?"

"Not right now. I was just on my way home from Johto when I saw the poster for this tournament yesterday."

"I see. That's too bad."

"Who knows though. I might head on over there when I'm done checking in."

"In that case, I'll stop in at some of the contest towns. It'll be interesting seeing them from the other side for a change."

"Then you've actually kept on competing then, have you?"

"Only some smaller contests and tournaments like this one. As you can probably imagine, I've not really been able to travel around too much recently."

"I see. That's too bad. Like I said, the circuit has really missed you."

"But, more importantly, you'd better watch out for Kimberly when you fight her."

"Yeah. I know." Lana frowned as she said, "Even if she called herself a 'Battle Girl', she fought more like a coordinator than a trainer just now."

"Well, either way, knowing you you'll probably just find some way to turn it into a battle of pure force rather than keep it as a coordinator style battle."

Lana lost the frown, grinning as she said, "Well, what can I say, I do my best," as she shrugged, spreading her arms, acting as if she was boasting, despite both girls being both well aware that she was anything but. They burst into laughter, shocking all of the people around them, having witnessed their argument before Leanne's match began. They then focused back on the next match.


End file.
